Astro sees growth thanks to e-commerce and Adex

(marketingmagazine.com.my) – Astro Malaysia announced its latest results for the first half of the financial year ending 31 January 2017 (1HFY17), with year on year (yoy) modest growth in revenue, underpinned by better performance in e-commerce and Adex.

Revenue growth for the company was supported by better performance of Adex and Go Shop. Its yoy advertising income grew by 10% to RM336.3 million, from RM304.5 million in the first half of last year’s fiscal year. The group attributes this growth to Astro’s increased reach and integration of its TV, radio, mobile and digital platforms which are drawing in viewers, listeners and advertisers. Astro’s share of TV Adex and Radex amounted to 37% and 73% respectively.

Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Group Chief Executive Officer of Astro shared, “We are now serving 5 million or 69% of Malaysian households (3.5 million Pay-TV and 1.5 million NJOI) with growth primarily driven by our subscription-free TV service, NJOI (+ 38% yoy).

In meeting the challenge of providing relevant content, products and services Dato’ Rohana shared that the group would be deploying data analytics to better understand their customers and increasing their marketing efforts to raise customer awareness on their various products which include On Demand (OD) and Download to Go.

“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.” She added.

According to the company the number of connected set-top-boxes jumped 118% yoy to 395, 000 while video downloads increased to 522, 000 per month, from 300, 000 per month. Mobile viewing also rose with AOTG app downloads increasing 67% yoy to 2.6 million and average weekly viewing time growing to 260 minutes.

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

The company saw a continuous growth in its Go Shop product with an 87% yoy growth in revenue to RM138mn in 1HFY17 and a total of 75 million online and mobile page views. According to the release 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 10 million and 12.4 million for RIO Olympics 2016, a four-fold increase. Astro’s journey towards becoming a digital brand had a huge boost from the RIO 2016 Olympics with Astro Arena’s YouTube channel garnering 21 million views. The channel’s live stream of Badminton men’s singles final on Astro Arena and Stadium Astro YouTube channels attracted 120 000 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 added, “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.”