Lower advertising revenue for Astro in recent months

Astro grows 34% in revenue but faces overall slump due to reduction in advertising

Astro Malaysia Holding Bhd posted a revenue growth of 34% in the first half of the financial year 2019.

Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro, said: “Astro continues to be cash generative, cost disciplined and proactive in its capital management whilst navigating through a challenging market and competitive media environment. The Board is pleased to declare a second interim dividend of 2.5 sen per share.”

Henry Tan, Chief Executive Officer designate of Astro, said: “As budgeted, we experienced increased content costs for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In addition, financial results were affected by the reduced need to advertise during the tax holiday period from 1 June to 31 Aug 2018 and the depreciating Ringgit. Nevertheless, we continue to have stable revenues across TV and radio with diversification from digital platforms, eCommerce, licensing income and theatrical sales.”

Astro now has 23 million television viewers, 16.9 million weekly radio listeners, 7 million average monthly unique digital visitors and 1.5 million shoppers.

With 5.6 million customers translating to 76% household penetration, Astro GO registered users grew by almost 50% year on year to 1.9 million.

Revenue for Go Shop offerings rose to RM177 million with registered customers increasing 50% year on year to 1.5 million.

Astro remains attractive to advertisers with a television viewership of 75% and radio listenership at 16.9 million.

It’s share of TV advertising expenditure and radio advertising expenditure remained strong at 41% and 75% respectively.

With Astro acquiring the right to the Premier League for the next three seasons till 2021/22, football fans can look forward to all 380 matches live and in HD across TV and Astro Go, with selected matches available in 4K UHD.

Astro’s ‘Home of Sports’ proposition was further reinforced this year through broadcast of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2018 Asian Games.

World Cup viewership on Astro continued to increase across all platforms. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, TV viewership reached an all time high of 11.6 million, one million on Astro GO resulting in over 120k World Cup passes sold, as revenues from World Cup passes increased by 50% from the 2014 World Cup.

In the box office segment,  Astro ‘s previous record was at RM18 million until Hantu Kak Limah set the new benchmark by more than doubling the box office to RM38mn, beating latest Hollywood blockbusters; Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Marvel’s Deadpool 2.

Astro’s latest Signature IP, Big Stage, is a first-of-its-kind talent show featuring social media stars and it achieved 18.8 million digital views and viewership of 2 million.

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