14 minutes
PETALING JAYA: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the second quarter ended July 31, 2019 jumped 10 times to RM169.34 million from RM16.58 million a year ago, underpinned by its cost-discipline measures.
However, its revenue fell 12.7% to RM1.24 billion from RM1.42 billion, mainly due to a decrease in subscription revenue and licensing income.
It has declared a second interim dividend of 2 sen per share.
For the quarter under review, Astro’s Pay-TV average revenue per user rose 10 sen to RM100, while TV advertising expenditure grew 8% to RM86 million.
For the six-month period, its net profit jumped 80.6% to RM345.53 million from RM191.31 million, while revenue slipped 9.4% to RM2.47 billion from RM2.73 billion.
Astro CEO Henry Tan said the group continues to deliver strong profit with rigorous cost discipline to optimise content spend and operating expenses.
“Concurrently, we are putting in place building blocks for new revenue adjacencies, specifically in broadband and content bundles with Maxis and in OTT (over-the-top) through our strategic partnerships with iQIYI and HBO Asia; with more partnerships in the coming months.”
While the market remains challenging with structural changes in the global content, media and advertising industries, including threat of piracy, Astro said its focus is to strengthen its core pay-TV and NJOI businesses by redefining customer value propositions, elevating customer service and refreshing content.
It added that the group will leverage on its customer base to build new revenue adjacencies in broadband, OTT, digital and commerce.
