The (mostly) death of physical media has fundamentally shaken up the independent film world. But there are still holdouts, still vestiges of that era left to us. And the Toronto International Film Festival has just taken steps to ensure its existence with a new deal with Rogers Communications ($TSE:RCI.B). The deal was good enough to send Rogers up fractionally in Friday morning’s trading.
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The deal, an agreement running three years, calls for Rogers to come back as “presenting partner” of the festival, as well as the People’s Choice Award, until 2028. This is not the first time Rogers and TIFF ran such an affair; the duo were working together just last year, and apparently, Rogers liked how that turned out because it came back in a big way.
Rogers comes back just in time, too; 2025 marks TIFF’s 50th anniversary, with events celebrating the golden anniversary running from September 4 to September 14. And since TIFF’s 2024 event saw over 700,000 attendees show up—which was a record by itself, reports note—that should be a good way to get out the word about Rogers as well. Rogers will offer up some of its own production skill for the event as well, including the “Rogers Beyond the Seat” program that will provide “unique access”, which will likely be mostly backstage and behind the scenes sort of content.
Building on Better Times
New reports from Zacks, meanwhile, suggest that brighter days are ahead for Rogers anyway. Rogers’ latest quarter ended back in December, and it is slated to deliver a gain in earnings against the same time a year prior, the reports note.
Rogers will be bringing out its report on January 30, and there will likely be a lot of discussion around just how sustainable the recent price gains have been in recent days. If Rogers can demonstrate a path to victory, then the share price rises may continue. The TIFF sponsorship could help on that front, since it is a huge event with a largely captive audience.
Is Rogers Communications a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on TSE:RCI.B stock based on six Buys, three Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 33.06% loss in its share price over the past year, the average TSE:RCI.B price target of C$54.88 per share implies 33.3% upside potential.
