Star Choice Communications, which recently moved its head office from Calgary to Mississauga, reported net losses of C$73.2 million ($49.4 million) for the year ended Aug. 31, a hefty increase of 72% from losses reported last year. The loss is due to the startup nature of the company -- Star Choice first rolled out its DTH service in 1997 -- and also, paradoxically, to a brisk increase in the number of subscribers.

"We've had a 122% growth in the customer base, and that's something to be very positive about," said chairman Brian Neill.

Star Choice reported that earlier this week it counted 270,000 DTH digital satellite TV customers in total, making it one of the largest providers in Canada. "We'll actually be making money here before too long," Neill said. "We're very much on track with our business plan."

Analysts have estimated in published reports that Star Choice will break even on a cash-flow basis when its subscriber base reaches somewhere between 350,000 and 450,000, a level it's expected to achieve sometime in 2001.

Revenues on the year jumped almost 60% from fiscal 1998 to $98.6 million, a leap that is also largely due to the growth in the number of subs. No per-share financial figures are provided because as of Aug. 31, Star Choice became a division of Canadian Satellite Communications (CanCom), a similar -- though profitable -- business.

The merger of the two companies, of which cabler Shaw Communications owns a significant share, will bring Star Choice into the black ahead of schedule, said Neill, though he did not provide a time frame.