Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Astro Posts Resilient Results in FY20, Underpinned by Cost ...

25/03/2020

Astro Posts Resilient Results in FY20, Underpinned by Cost Optimisation

Date Released:25 Mar 2020

Share

Tweet

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad | Result highlights for the financial year ended 31 January 2020 (FY20)

Revenue -10% y-o-y at RM4.9bn

EBITDA +7% y-o-y to RM1.7bn

Normalised PATAMI* +17% y-o-y to RM657mn; underpinned by cost optimisation

4QFY20 Normalised PATAMI -19% y-o-y to RM128mn

Declared fourth interim dividend of 1.5 sen per share.

Pay-TV ARPU steady at RM100

Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro, said: Despite headwinds in the global economic environment and a challenging media landscape in FY20, Astro continues to be cash generative, cost disciplined and proactive in its capital management. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board has decided to take a prudent approach by moderating a fourth interim dividend to 1.5 sen per share.

Total dividend declared in FY20 amounts to 7.5 sen, equating to a 60% dividend payout ratio. This represents a departure from Astro's dividend policy of paying out at least 75% of consolidated profits. Given the current heightened uncertainty, the Board believes this to be the best course of action to conserve liquidity and strengthen the Group's balance sheet.

Henry Tan, Group Chief Executive Officer of Astro said: Our financial results remain resilient amid a challenging operating environment and the threat of piracy. We achieved PATAMI growth by optimizing cost and strengthening our position as the entertainment destination and gateway to Malaysian homes through our Pay-TV, NJOI, Commerce and Broadband propositions. The Ultra Box, Astro's latest 4K UHD decoder with cloud recording is well-received with over 45,000 orders since launch.

Our stable financials enable us to pivot our business to capture new digital opportunities in OTT video streaming, radio and commerce. With 3 exclusive streaming services - Astro GO, HBO GO and iQIYI, we have the largest customer base for video streaming services in Malaysia, with over 2.6mn registered users.

Key Operational Highlights:

Winning Over Malaysian Homes: With a variety of vernacular, international and live sports content, coupled with initiatives to elevate customer experience, Astro is strengthening its position as Malaysia's entertainment destination of choice, with a total customer base of 5.7mn, or 75% of Malaysian TV households. Astro is leveraging on NJOI to further increase its presence in households. NJOI introduced e-wallet top-ups to complement the existing 30,000 touchpoints including convenience stores, online banking and self-service channels.

Strong Engagement: Our customers are watching over 4 hours of Astro daily across TV, On Demand and Astro GO, reaffirming our relevance even in this digital era. Astro's HD offering has grown to 101 channels, contributing to a strong TV viewership share of 76%. With an On Demand library of over 51,000 shows, On Demand titles watched grew 37% y-o-y to 74mn while weekly time spent increased by 8% to 480 minutes. Meanwhile, Astro GO's registered users rose 20% to 2.6mn and weekly viewing time increased by 16% to 173 minutes.

Radex showing q-o-q growth: Astro's radio brands maintained their No.1 position in their respective languages, reaching 16.9 million weekly listeners, with an average of 2 hours daily while 3 million users stream radio online monthly. The SYOK app, which aggregates our radio brands, podcasts and original videos, has over 273k monthly active users. Astro Radio's Radex saw growth in the past 4 quarters while Radex share rose 4 percentage points to 80%. Astro's share of Digital Adex stood at 4%, supported by 11.6mn digital monthly unique visitors on over 25 digital brands. Meanwhile, Astro's TV Adex share stood at 43%, underpinned by higher viewing across all platforms.

Growing reach: Go Shop grew its reach nationwide registering a 25% growth in customers to 2.2mn with over 1.0mn app downloads.

Key Initiatives:

Astro Shaw Leads the Local Box Office: BoBoiBoy The Movie 2, a collaboration between Astro Shaw and Animonsta, is the top grossing animated movie in Malaysia last year with RM30mn ticket sales. Together with other releases - Pusaka, Sangkar, Wira and Misteri Dilaila, Astro Shaw garnered 50% of the local Malaysian box office in 2019. Award-winning The Garden of Evening Mists has been released in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan and Hong Kong and continues to receive critical acclaim globally.

Vernacular Content Drives Highest Viewership: Astro's vernacular content was key to strong TV viewership share of 76%. Its originals such as Gegar Vaganza 6, Maharaja Lawak Mega 2019, Curi-Curi Cinta and Classic Golden Melody 2019 were the most viewed programmes in 2019. Its reality talent show, Gegar Vaganza 6, was the highest rated programme with 3.8mn TV viewership.

Content Bundled Packages with Fibre Broadband Speeds of up to 800 Mbps: Astro now offers new content packages bundled with fibre broadband speeds of 300Mbps, 500Mbps and 800Mbps, in partnership with Maxis Home Fibre.

Outlook

Globally, businesses are facing unprecedented social and economic challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Henry said, As a broadcaster, Astro is categorised by the government as an essential service provider. While we continue to broadcast as usual during the Movement Control Order, we have also activated our business continuity plans and ensured the safety of our employees. Our teams are currently split across different sites with significant majority working from home. We at Astro are doing our part to keep Malaysians informed and entertained through these trying times.

Astro remains focused on strengthening its customer value proposition and loyalty, while pursuing deeper cost optimisation and stronger anti-piracy push. At the same time Astro will leverage on its customer
LINK: https://www.astro.com.my/mediaroom/articledetails.aspx?id=1044&title=a...
See more stories from astro

Asia, Australia & Oceanic Stories

18/04/2024

Alone Australia goes from strength to strength

Alone Australia goes from strength to strength 18 April, 2024 Media releases The program again delivers for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vi...

18/04/2024

Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative

18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative Savage River Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...

16/04/2024

ABS Agility Beyond Space announces Appointment of Mark Rigolle as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

ABS Agility Beyond Space announces Appointment of Mark Rigolle as its Chief Ex...

11/04/2024

Alone Australia Ep 2 reaches over 1m Australians

Alone Australia Ep 2 reaches over 1m Australians 11 April, 2024 Media releases The program continues to consistently grow week-on-week in linear audience w...

11/04/2024

Screen Australia and Meta launch fourth year of First Nations Creators Program for Instagram

11 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Meta launch fourth year of First...

10/04/2024

Screen Australia announces over $2.3 million for nine documentaries

10 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $2.3 million for nine documentaries Guardians of the River Screen Australia has announced nine doc...

09/04/2024

Groundbreaking NITV documentary series Our Law expands across Australia from Thursday 9 May

Groundbreaking NITV documentary series Our Law expands across Australia from Thu...

09/04/2024

Psst; inflo transcribes with Whisper

Techtel, the creators of inflo, today announced that a new speech to text transcription engine from openai called Whisper, is available to inflo customers who a...

04/04/2024

Manu Feildel, Miranda Otto and Pat Rafter join life-changing new season of Who Do You Think You Are?

Manu Feildel, Miranda Otto and Pat Rafter join life-changing new season of Who D...

04/04/2024

Alone Australia season 2 continues to redefine Australian TV viewing through on-demand digital consumption

Alone Australia season 2 continues to redefine Australian TV viewing through on-...

27/03/2024

Living Black, the longest-running Indigenous current affairs television program in Australia, returns for its 21st year with new guests

Living Black, the longest-running Indigenous current affairs television program ...

26/03/2024

Crime is relative in SBS's new Canneseries nominated crime-family dramawith a difference

Crime is relative in SBS's new Canneseries nominated crime-family drama with...

25/03/2024

SBS gears up for Season 2 of Alone Australia with the creation of Alone Cologne'

SBS gears up for Season 2 of Alone Australia with the creation of Alone Cologne...

22/03/2024

SBS Learn partners with the Islamic Museum of Australia to support classrooms in understanding Ramadan and Eid with new teacher resource

SBS Learn partners with the Islamic Museum of Australia to support classrooms in...

21/03/2024

Screen Australia announces over $1.6 million in support of the games industry

21 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $1.6 million in support of the games industry Which Way Up: Galaxy Games Screen Australia has anno...

18/03/2024

Screen Australia and VicScreen launch new Screen Careers initiative

18 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and VicScreen launch new Screen Careers initiative LTR Denise Eriksen, Esther Coleman Hawkins, Caroline Pitcher, K...

15/03/2024

The Creators 2024 Participants Announced

15 03 2024 - Media release The Creators 2024 Participants Announced The Creators program recipients. L-R Thomas Duncan-Watt, Vanessa Gazy, Sarah Lambert, Lea...

14/03/2024

SBS to mark Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with all Australians

SBS to mark Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with all Australians 14 March, 2024 Media releases Content in 22 languages*, a collection of movies to stream free on d...

14/03/2024

Notice of Nominees for Directors (Resolution planned, June 19, 2024)

March 14,2024 -- KDDI Corporation KDDI Corporation resolved at a meeting of the Board of Directors held today to change (newly appointed, retire) a director ...

13/03/2024

Screen Australia announces dramas Critical Incident and Sunny Nights for Stan

13 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces dramas Critical Incident and Sunny Nights for Stan Critical Incident: Akshay Khanna and Zoe Boe. Photo c...

07/03/2024

Explore the afterlife with SBS podcast Grave Matters'

Explore the afterlife with SBS podcast Grave Matters' 6 March, 2024 Media releases Most of us are woefully unprepared for one of life's few certai...

06/03/2024

Multi-award winning electronic music duo to represent Australia at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Malm, Sweden

Multi-award winning electronic music duo to represent Australia at this year'...

06/03/2024

GITAI and KDDI Successfully Demonstrates Robotics Construction Capabilities for Lunar Communications Towers

Developing Lunar 3GPP Mobile Network Technologies for Moon Exploration GITA...

04/03/2024

SBS announces new development fund to discover Australia's biggest and riskiest new factual hit

SBS announces new development fund to discover Australia's biggest and riski...

28/02/2024

Yumi Stynes returns for season two of SBS podcast SEEN'

Yumi Stynes returns for season two of SBS podcast SEEN' 26 February, 2024 Media releases Eight new trailblazers join feminist Australian icon Yumi Sty...

28/02/2024

Screen Australia announces over $810,000 in development funding for 29 projects

28 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $810,000 in development funding for 29 projects Willy Screen Australia has announced 23 feature fi...

27/02/2024

Michael Ebeid AM appointed as new Screen Australia Chair

27 02 2024 - Media release Michael Ebeid AM appointed as new Screen Australia Chair Michael Ebeid AM and Megan Brownlow The Hon. Minister for the Arts, Tony...

26/02/2024

KDDI, Sony Honda Mobility Start Collaboration to Drive Connected Businesses Globally

Supporting AFEELAs entertainment experience and global launch with a communicati...

21/02/2024

Screen Australia and Australians in Film Announce Applications Open for UNTAPPED 2024

21 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Australians in Film Announce App...

21/02/2024

Sony and KDDI Accelerate Efforts to Promote Digital Transformation in the Broadcasting and Media Industries

Aiming to deliver new video-related solutions utilizing 5G SA this year Son...

21/02/2024

KDDI Teams Up with Kyoto Sanga F.C. to Start Demonstration Test for Fan Engagement Services with Smartphone Game

Support the team with gifts while enjoying AR games in the stadium KDDI COR...

21/02/2024

U and Google's Gemini model to Provide Generative AI Services for Everyday Use

KDDI CORPORATION February 21,2024 -- Tokyo, February 21, 2024 From February 2...

20/02/2024

The Approval of SORACOM's Listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market

KDDI CORPORATION February 20,2024 -- KDDI announces that its consolidated subsidiary, SORACOM, INC. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Ken Tamagawa, herei...

15/02/2024

Alone Australia Season 2 Returns 27 March | Meet the Cast

Alone Australia Season 2 Returns 27 March | Meet the Cast 15 February, 2024 Media releases Smash hit series Alone Australia returns Wednesday 27 March on S...

15/02/2024

NITV's flagship footy show Over the Black Dot returns Tuesday 5 March, live and in high definition

NITV's flagship footy show Over the Black Dot returns Tuesday 5 March, live ...

15/02/2024

Screen Australia announces over $560,000 for crew and gamemaker skills programs

15 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $560,000 for crew and gamemaker skills programs Liz Keogh Palmer (Australian Production Design Guil...

13/02/2024

2024 is a landmark year for SBS's award-winning current affairs line-up, covering the most impactful local and global stories

2024 is a landmark year for SBS's award-winning current affairs line-up, cov...

13/02/2024

Six Australian projects bound for South by Southwest Festival in the US

22 01 2024 - Media release Six Australian projects bound for South by Southwest Festival in the US Audrey, Birdeater, The Moogai Six Australian screen projec...

12/02/2024

Screen Australia and YouTube Australia Launch Skip Ahead 9

12 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and YouTube Australia Launch Skip Ahead 9 Uncovering Street Dance: Australia from Skip Ahead 8. Photographed by Ry...

08/02/2024

Screen Australia and ABC announce Bay of Fires is back for season two

08 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and ABC announce Bay of Fires is back for season two Marta Dusseldorp as Stella in Bay of Fires ABC, Screen Austr...

07/02/2024

4 in 10 Australians battling sleep issues as nation's sleep crisis grows

4 in 10 Australians battling sleep issues as nation's sleep crisis grows 7 February, 2024 Media releases Dr Michael Mosley and the sleep scientists fro...

06/02/2024

Six screen creatives selected for the 2024 SBS Emerging Writers' Incubator initiative

Six screen creatives selected for the 2024 SBS Emerging Writers' Incubator i...

02/02/2024

SBS Scripted TV Lunch sessions return for another year of connecting with creatives

SBS Scripted TV Lunch sessions return for another year of connecting with creati...

02/02/2024

Financial Results for the Third Quarter of the Fiscal Year Ending March 2024

February 2,2024 -- KDDI Corporation KDDI announced the financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2024. Summary In the third q...

31/01/2024

Filming Begins on SBS' Romantic Original Drama Four Years Later' in India

Filming Begins on SBS' Romantic Original Drama Four Years Later' in Ind...

30/01/2024

A stellar 2024 for SBS podcasts kicks off with The SBS Book Club' and Humans of the Australian Deaf Community'

A stellar 2024 for SBS podcasts kicks off with The SBS Book Club' and Huma...

29/01/2024

The host with the most, Adam Liaw, is back with an all new inviting season of The Cook Up

The host with the most, Adam Liaw, is back with an all new inviting season of Th...

22/01/2024

Eddie's Lil' Homies premieres on NITV and Netflix on Friday 16 February

Eddie's Lil' Homies premieres on NITV and Netflix on Friday 16 February 22 January, 2024 Media releases Animated comedy series inspired by AFL grea...

22/01/2024

Five Australian projects bound for South by Southwest Festival in the US

22 01 2024 - Media release Five Australian projects bound for South by Southwest Festival in the US Audrey, Birdeater, The Moogai Five Australian screen proj...