Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) announced today its results for the first half of the financial year ending 31 January 2017, with year on year (YoY) modest growth in revenue and PATAMI, underpinned by better performance in e-commerce and Adex. EBITDA decreased 6% YoY primarily due to currency depreciation impacting content costs.

Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro said, “The Group remains focused on delivering long-term shareholder returns and progressive dividend policy. The Board is pleased to declare a second interim dividend of 3 sen per share, 9% higher compared to the same period last year.”

Datuk Rohana Rozhan, Group Chief Executive Officer of Astro said, “We are now serving 5 million or 69% of Malaysian households (3.5mn Pay-TV and 1.5mn NJOI) with growth primarily driven by our subscription-free TV service, NJOI (+ 38% YoY). Our challenge is to provide a choice of content, products, services, value propositions and customer experiences which is second to none. To achieve this, we will focus on getting to know our customers better by deploying data analytics and increasing our marketing efforts to raise customer awareness of the plethora of best in class products and services we now offer including On Demand (OD), Download to Go, mobile broadband plans, seamless access to multiple devices and more Same Day Date content, among others. Viewership has increased with real time second screen engagement via Astro on the Go (AOTG), content mobile apps and through integrating social media onto our content delivery platforms.”

As a result of these efforts, utility of these new value added products and services achieved strong growth. The number of connected set-top-boxes jumped 118% YoY to 395k while video downloads increased to 522k per month, from 300k per month. Mobile viewing also rose with AOTG app downloads increasing 67% YoY to 2.6mn and average weekly viewing time growing to 260 minutes. Astro also saw higher demand for Astro First and Astro Best pay-per-view content, registering total buys of 1.7mn in 1HFY17. Take-up of NJOI prepaid pack rose 49% YoY to 931k buys.

Revenue growth in H1FY17 was supported by better performance of Adex and Go Shop. Advertising income grew by 10% YoY to RM336.3mn, from RM304.5mn in H1FY16, underpinned by Astro’s increased reach and integrated play of TV, radio, mobile and digital which are drawing in viewers, listeners and advertisers. Astro’s share of TV Adex and Radex amounted to 37% and 73% respectively.

Cost discipline remains a key focus to achieve optimisation and scale. Content costs have benefited from renegotiation of contracts with key content suppliers, resulting in significant savings and increased new media rights. These have helped in mitigating the impact of currency depreciation and a dual sporting year.

Go Shop continues to grow with an 87% YoY growth in revenue to RM138mn in 1HFY17 and a total of 75mn online and mobile page views. Go Shop will continue to focus on growing its base, increasing repeat buys, optimising delivery time, expanding its product offering and mix, and thus driving scale and margins.

This is a record Sports year for Astro as it achieved huge successes for UEFA EURO 2016 with a record reach of 10mn and 12.4mn for RIO Olympics 2016, a phenomenal four-fold increase, reaffirming Astro as the ‘Home of Sports’ for Malaysians. Importantly, Astro’s journey towards becoming a digital brand had a huge boost from the RIO 2016 Olympics with Astro Arena’s YouTube channel garnering 21mn views. Our live stream of Badminton men's singles final on Astro Arena and Stadium Astro YouTube channels attracted 120k concurrent viewers.

The region’s first 24/7 eSports channel, eGG Network (Every Good Game) has reached over 5.3mn viewers since its launch in June. Currently available in Malaysia and Indonesia, eGG Network will soon be available in the Philippines. eGG Network is available on linear and OTT on both Astro and Tribe, which is currently in Indonesia and will be launched in the Philippines in November 2016.

Dato’ Rohana said, “We are committed to delivering sustainable total shareholder returns by continuously reinventing ourselves to better serve our customers, earning our place as the people’s media brand of choice. In an increasingly fragmented market, our focus remains on differentiating ourselves through our content and talent whilst ensuring best in class customer experiences for our comprehensive suite of products and services across all our media assets.”

Here are the result highlights for the first half of the financial year ending 31 January 2017: