Astro eyes 3mln households via Njoi Now app in 3 years

Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd aims to service up to three million households in the next three years from the current 1.8 million households today via its Njoi Now application.

Launched today, the free application is designed to meet the digital lifestyles of consumers while offer complete flexibility with no fuss, said Group Chief Executive Officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan.

"Since its 2011 launch, Njoi has had an unprecedented take-up rate with the privilege of serving 1.8 million households today.

Each of these households have at least four to five viewers, therefore, in the near-future we have the potential of reaching 12 million viewers," she told reporters after launching the Njoi Now application here today.

Rohana said the application would allow Malaysians to go online or offline to access the content on all screens, at home and on individual mobiles.

The service also included access to over 2,000 movie titles and drama box sets, which may be downloaded and stored in the devices, in addition to live sports and news and the Go Shop e-commerce shopping platform.

Asked on how the company planned to monetise the Njoi Now app, she said with 98 per cent smartphones penetration rate in the country, Astro was confident that the targeted number could be reached.

"The free content will also give them a choice to access other premium content, which will be charged," she said.

Astro''s revenue mainly comes from television subscription followed by advertisements, radio advertisements and merchandising.

For 2017, higher advertising and other revenue helped offset the lower subscription revenue from the television segment.

Revenue from this segment was slightly higher at RM5.02 billion, up 0.7 per cent, year-on-year, while profit was 1.6 per cent better at RM702.2 million.

For 2018, it hoped the growth driver would be boosted with increased viewership on the Njoi Now app. -- Bernama