PETALING JAYA: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd
will continue to invest in its transformation for long-term and sustainable growth, focusing on content, broadband, streaming, customer experience, data, addressable advertising and technology to better serve customers.
Alongside progressive user interface and experience enhancements, the pay-TV operator said it is also committed to making children’s viewing safer.
“An increasing number of global streaming apps have been integrated onto our flagship Ultra Box and included in our new Astro TV packages, for the best big screen viewing experience.
“We expect to continue aggregating the best streaming apps and adding on lifestyle apps which are relevant for Malaysians in the near future,” it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
Astro group chief executive officer (CEO) Henry Tan said the company’s revenue for the third quarter ended Oct 31, 2022 grew quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) to RM926mil, driven by strong advertising expenditure performance during the period that increased 27% q-o-q to RM110mil.
“We recorded normalised profit after tax and minority interest of RM73mil in the third quarter,” said Tan, adding that the group remained cash generative and proactive in its capital management.
“Nevertheless, given the macro economic conditions and foreign currency volatility, the board has declared a third interim dividend of 0.75 sen per share. We continue to reinvest into our transformation for long-term and sustainable growth.” Basic earnings per share in the third quarter stood at 0.11 sen, versus 2.03 sen previously.
Astro group CEO-designate Euan Smith said the company will continue to seize growth opportunities in the broadband space.
“We recently launched BIZfibre to offer our enterprise customers one-stop connectivity and entertainment solutions at greater value.
“BIZfibre will contribute to the growth of our broadband and enterprise customer base. In the third quarter, Astro’s broadband base increased by 34% year-on-year as more customers bundled broadband with content for convenience and value,” he said.
On its prospects, Astro said addressable advertising is gaining traction in the market and is being enhanced with a unified audience measurement on Linear, On Demand and over-the-top.
“We expect addressable advertising to have increased industry adoption over time and to continue growing into the future.”
The company added that 75% of customers’ viewing is on local content, driven by its strong pipeline of Astro Originals and signatures including One Cent Thief and Gegar Vaganza S9.
