Gross profit for the year increased 26.0% to $225.8 million compared to $179.2 million in the prior year. Gross margin increased to 28.0% from 23.2% over the same period. EBITDA for the year also rose sharply, growing 25.8% to $133.6 million from $106.2 million last year.
This strong growth in the Company’s operating earnings is attributable to several factors including exceptional results from our Broadcasting Group, where EBITDA increased by 37.4% to approximately $41 million. This growth is after absorbing $4.5 million in operating losses from our development channels Series+ and Historia demonstrating the continued strength and acceptance of our core operating channels Showcase, Life Network, History Television, HGTV Canada and Food Network Canada. The Motion Picture Group’s results were buoyed by the performance of our wholly owned, UK based distribution company Momentum Pictures and we continued our keen focus on margin improvement with more profitable productions in our Television Group.
Higher charges for amortization, interest and minority interest expense together with an equity accounting loss on our Headline Media Group investment offset by certain investment gains realized during the year resulted in net earnings for the year of $35.0 million compared with $37.0 million last year, or $1.10 per basic share compared to $1.31 per basic share a year ago. Fully diluted earnings per share for the period were $1.09 compared to $1.25 per share recorded last year.
Revenue for the fourth quarter increased by 24.4% over the prior year from $208.4 million to $259.2 million. The increase is primarily attributable to higher deliveries in the Television Group this year compared to last. In the quarter we delivered 71.5 hours of television series, MOW’s and mini-series compared to 55.0 hours last year. Included in these deliveries were 8.0 hours of the highly rated CBS hit series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. We also delivered 33.0 hours of programming from our AAC Fact division versus nil hours in the prior year’s period.
Gross profit for the quarter was $67.9 million compared to $46.7 million, an increase of 45.4%. The increase is primarily attributable to higher deliveries as noted above and significant improvements in the profitability of our Television Group’s production mix.
EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $40.3 million compared to $27.7 last year, representing an increase of 45.5%.
Net earnings for the quarter were $8.2 million or $0.25 per basic and fully diluted share compared to $8.4 million or $0.26 per basic and fully diluted share last year. This difference is attributed to higher charges for amortization, interest and minority interest expense together with an equity accounting loss on our Headline Media Group investment offset by certain investment gains realized during the quarter.
