" Offering viewers access to the best programming television has to offer, when they want it, where they want it. "

- John Riley, President, Astral Television Networks and Astral Télé Réseaux

Television

Largest pay and specialty television broadcaster in Canada.

20 television services owned in whole or in partnership.

Several of the most popular and exciting television brands in Québec and Canada.

Financial highlights

Television Group revenue grew by 3% to $513.3 million relative to $497.0 million in 2008.

Subscription revenue grew by 6% to $403.8 million compared to $382.7 million in 2008.

Television Group advertising revenue decreased by 4% to $104.3 million in 2009, compared to $108.2 million in 2008.

EBITDA grew by 5% to $188.4 million, compared to $179.5 million in 2008.

In Fiscal 2009, EBITDA margin increased by 60 basis points to 36.7% - one of the highest margins in the industry.

Television revenue growth - Five-year overview

Pay-television subscriber growth (TMN and SÉ) - Five-year overview

French-language specialty channel audience share - Five-year overview

Fiscal 2009 at a glance

New, highly prized services

HBO Canada launch: In November 2008, this multiplex channel of The Movie Network was launched. It broadcasts award-winning series, films and sitcoms as well as live events from one of the most sought-after entertainment brands in the world. The channel is included in The Movie Network subscriptions and offered in HD and on demand where the service is available.

The French-language TÉLÉTOON Rétro service was launched in September 2008. A little more than a year after its launch, TÉLÉTOON Rétro dominates the digital channel market, capturing an audience share of nearly 36% among adults 25-54 who have children 12 or under

TMN OnLine, Family OnLine and Playhouse Disney launches: The October and November 2009 launches of these services is a very attractive strategic addition that gives Bell TV subscribers throughout Canada access to all of their favourite content on their laptop or PC at no additional cost.

English-language pay and specialty television

In eastern Canada, The Movie Network holds down second place in the prized 18-34 age segment and is tied for third place among the entire population age 2 and over.

With a market share of 14.7%, Family remains the number one specialty channel in Canada among children age 8 to 14.

Playhouse Disney is now distributed in over 1.2 million households and posts a solid market share of 2.4% among young children age 2 to 7.

Mpix maintains its 0.5% market share, which places it in third position among English-language pay-television channels in Canada.

The English-language TELETOON channel grew its audience share by 9% over last year in the age 2-11 segment with market share of 6.3%.

The English-language TELETOON Retro channel is the number one digital channel in both market share and weekly reach among children age 2 to 11 and teenagers age 12 to 17.

French-language pay and specialty television

Among French-language pay and specialty television services, Super Écran maintains its number two position among viewers age 2 and over as well as those age 25 to 54.

Cinépop, with a market share of 0.5%, is the number one French-language digital channel in Canada.

With combined audience share of 22.6% among viewers age 25 to 54, the performance of Astral Media's ten French-language specialty channels compares favourably with the 21.9% recorded last year.

With an average viewership of nearly 3.6 million, Canal D has the second highest weekly reach of specialty channels.

Ztélé continues to break its own records with a 3.2% market share among viewers age 18 to 49 and 4% among men age 18 to 49 - 33% increases over last year.

Séries+ can take pride in the strong loyalty of its female viewers. With an average weekly viewing time of 3.3 hours among women age 25 to 54, it dominates the specialty channel market.

Canal Vie has reached new heights with a market share of 4.5% among women age 25 to 54, an increase of 10% over last year. It continues to appeal to its largely female audience, posting the highest concentration of female viewers in the industry, 68%.

With a 1.8% audience share among viewers age 25 to 54, Historia equalled last year's record performance.

Through popular programming acquisitions and highly targeted original productions, MusiquePlus maintains the highest concentration of viewers 18 to 34 (52%) in the entire adult French-language market.

VRAK.TV continues to hold first place among specialty channels and second place for the whole market among age 12 to 17 (12.8%) and age 9 to 14 (15.9%). Every week, it reaches 71% of teenagers and 76% of preteens in Québec.

Successful local productions ensure that MusiMax has a weekly reach of a little over 2 million Quebecers who love pop music.

The French-language service TÉLÉTOON recorded important gains in its target audiences, with audience share growing 10% among viewers age 6 to 11, 10% among those age 8 to 14 and 14% among adults age 18 to 49.

With 46.6% of its audience made up of adults age 25 to 54 who have children age 12 or under, TÉLÉTOON Rétro is the number one channel in Québec for co-viewing - reaching viewers who watch TV as a family.

Video-on-demand and interactive

The growth of video-on-demand services marks an important evolution in pay television. Making them more widely available is perfectly aligned with Astral's mission to offer all Canadians a choice of targeted media when they want it.

For The Movie Network, on-demand services accounted for nearly 15% of all hours tuned in 2009.

On average, Super Écran sur demande customers use the service ten times a month.

Use of Mpix on demand services grew by 20% over last year.

The new media offerings from the English and French TELETOON channels share a presence on Videotron's illico on Demand, Rogers, Cogeco, iTunes, Cablevision du nord, Shaw and Telus.

Family OnDemand expanded its high-quality content with major events from Disney.

Going forward, interactive media will be at the heart of both our programming and our consumer and advertiser marketing strategies. Here are a few examples:

Over the past year, eight of Astral Media's ten French-language specialty channels launched new WebTV players, which were custom developed in-house.

In addition to presenting clips and full-length episodes of our programs, it was designed to feature exclusive Web content, such as Web episodes, capsules and multiplatform series that are alternately broadcast on air and online.

Our channels continue to integrate new media such as social networking and blogs into their content distribution strategies to reach their target audiences even more efficiently.

Many of our Websites are among the most visited in Canada and have received multiple awards. For example, teletoon.com attracts over 1.7 million visitors. Similarly, Family.ca draws nearly 900,000 unique visitors each month.

Since February 2009, when HBO.com began automatically redirecting all Canadian visitors to HBOCanada.com, the site has broken all records for pay-television sites, recording over 200,000 unique visitors monthly.

Sales – Astral Media's television division

Astral Media TVPlus advertising revenues decreased by 3% from the previous year. This performance compares favourably with the French-language television market in Québec, which dropped by 4% during the same period.

In Fiscal 2009, the ten channels represented by Astral Media TVPlus (Canal Vie, Canal D, VRAK.TV, Ztélé, Historia, Séries+, MusiquePlus, MusiMax, TÉLÉTOON and TÉLÉTOON Rétro) together recorded growth in the target audience most purchased by advertisers, adults age 25 to 54. Astral Media TVPlus market share in this segment increased to 26%, compared to 25.3% the year previous.

The in-house sales division also made gains in the 18 to 49 and 18 to 34 age groups of 4.9% and 7%, respectively.

In addition, over the same period, Astral Media TVPlus modified the structure and content of its Website, astralmediatvplus.com, to create an effective planning tool for all of its clients.

In the past year, the Company also implemented its online SAM tendering and inventory system to improve media inventory management and optimize the speed and efficiency of its responses to media buyer requests.

Finally, Astral Media TVPlus continued integrating the Internet into its TV advertising offer, in collaboration with the new Astral iMedia – Internet Sales division, launched at the start of the year.

Outlook for Fiscal 2010

Astral Media expects to maximize its advertising sales opportunities as the economy and the advertising sector recover. Maintaining strong brands and solid audience numbers is essential to reaching this objective.

We will continue to optimize our on-demand television services, particularly by maximizing the potential of the HBO brand, and to innovate with launches of new value-added services.

Furthermore, we will continue to enrich our Internet offer to meet audience and advertiser needs.