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
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
12/07/2025
As the death toll continues to mount, with at least 120 killed and more than 170 people still missing on July 10 from devastating Texas floods, a number of broa...
12/07/2025
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., and MIAMI -DirecTV and TelevisaUnivision have signed a deal that will make the ad-supported premium subscription tier of ViX, ViX Premium wi...
11/07/2025
PARK CITY, UTAH, July 11, 2025 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 11 producers chosen for its annual Producers Labs, returning to Ucross Fou...
11/07/2025
If you've ever wondered what might be playing in Clark Kent's headphones...
11/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert and General Manager of L3Harris Waco facility Sean Ling held a ce...
11/07/2025
ARLINGTON, Va. WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washingt...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission has emerged as one of the central players in the broadcast TV landscape in 2025, with its deregulatory policies sparking h...
11/07/2025
Calrec will introduce usability, customization and system enhancements across its entire range of Argo consoles during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterda...
11/07/2025
LONDON Encompass Digital Media said it will support live and on-demand viewing of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup across multiple global regions for sports enterta...
11/07/2025
Two-thirds of broadcast engineers reaped the benefits of a pay raise within the last year....
11/07/2025
CARY, N.C. SmallHD has launched the Quantum 27, a new 26.5-inch Quantum-Dot OLED monitor designed to deliver postproduction image quality in a compact, set-frie...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau and Tegna have entered into a consent decree that will settle an investigation into the accidenta...
11/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following news in early July that Paramount had settled President Donald Trump's lawsuit, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Ray Luj n (D-N...
11/07/2025
Model/Actriz Performs Lead Single Cinderella on The Late Show with Stephen Colbe...
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Is Coming on July 18 Only on Netflix
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
July 11, 20...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Will Release Death Inc. Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Season 1
Season 2
Se...
11/07/2025
AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards Collaboration launches two papers to guide the future of AI integration, today at the AI for Good Global Summit
The...
11/07/2025
Ceramics - the humble mix of earth, fire and artistry - have been part of a global conversation for millennia.
From Tang Dynasty trade routes to Renaissance pa...
10/07/2025
The current holder of the prestigious Thomson Foundation Young Journalist of the Year Award has been forced to stop reporting over fears for her safety in Afgha...
10/07/2025
Spotify is turning up the volume on Australian music with a multipronged initiative designed to highlight the dominance of Australian artists on the global stag...
10/07/2025
This is not a drill: Oasis is back on the road-marking its first live performanc...
10/07/2025
The music industry depends on fresh ideas, bold voices, and emerging talent. Yet across the U.K., too many young musicians lack the space to develop their craft...
10/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 10, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today announced that it appointed Richard Pacheco as head of ...
10/07/2025
Local newscasts don't exist in a vacuum. News directors and station management constantly evaluate what's working, what isn't and perhaps most impor...
10/07/2025
Lawo has announced that Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien, HdM) has comprehensively modernized its central recording studio after selecting an I...
10/07/2025
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has opened early-bird registration for the Media Technology Summit, which will take place in a ne...
10/07/2025
NASHVILLE, Tenn. TNDV Television has launched Aspiration 35, a new version of its 40-foot Aspiration truck reimagined for cinematic multicamera productions....
10/07/2025
BURBANK, Calif. Key Code Education, a provider of instructor-led postproduction training, is growing its curriculum with new programs for beginner and intermedi...
10/07/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. Actus Digital will demonstrate how broadcasters can transform compliance monitoring from a necessary expense into a strategic revenue driver at...
10/07/2025
The Federal Register has published a summary of the Federal Communications Commission's Public Notice seeking comments on its ownership rules that lists a d...
10/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Presents the Official Trailer for SuperestarPlay Video
Play Video
Entertainment
10 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard...
10/07/2025
In the race to understand our planet's changing climate, speed and accuracy are everything. But today's most widely used climate simulators often strugg...
10/07/2025
As one of the world's largest emerging markets, Indonesia is making strides toward its Golden 2045 Vision - an initiative tapping digital technologies and...
10/07/2025
10 Jul 2025
VEON and Cohen Circle Secure Investor Commitments for Kyivstar Listing Kyiv, New York, Dubai, and Philadelphia - July 10, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq:...
10/07/2025
5G for all? What the DFL's use of Easy5G and RefCam could mean for events in...
10/07/2025
Save the Date: PGA TOUR Studios Welcomes SVG Remote Production Summit on Oct 14-...
10/07/2025
Cloud on the Road: How Remote-Production-Service Providers Are Adapting to a New...
10/07/2025
Seattle Kraken's Ryan Schaber on the NHL Team Taking Live Game Productions I...
10/07/2025
FOX Sports Reboots Small Control Room in Los Angeles as Hub for Vertical-First P...
10/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: MSE's Zach Leonsis, ViewLift's Rick Allen Go Deep on Joint...
Astro Posts Resilient Results in FY20, Underpinned by Cost Optimisation 
