ASTRO Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s net profit eased 8.32 per cent to RM113.4 million in the third quarter ended October 30 2014, although revenue was 5.23 per cent higher at RM1.28 billion from RM1.21 billion previously.
The group saw its net profit for the nine months rise 12 per cent to RM376 million on a 10 per cent revenue growth of RM3.9 billion.
Other than the drop in the latest quarter’s net profit, Astro saw all other numbers go up.
The company said in a statement yesterday its performance was underpinned by an expansion in customer base, higher average income per user, thanks to healthy take-up of value-added products and services, and growth in advertising income.
Astro chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan said the satellite broadcaster is in 62 per cent of Malaysian households, with a total customer base of 4.3 million.
“Our relevance remains with choices ranging from our free TV (NJOI — subscription-free satellite TV service) to pay TV, as well as Astro on-the-Go.”
She said its growth of three per cent to RM98.5 was driven by customers’ take-up of value-added services.
“We saw strong demand for high-definition (HD) service with more than 1.9 million subscribers, a 45 per cent increase in personal video recording service to 679,000 subscribers and a 29 per cent rise in multi-room customers to 372,000.
“We are working towards sustaining this trend with more HD offerings, as well as with our ‘same day’ TV series, which we broadcast as soon as they have premiered in the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.”
Astro aims to strengthen its relevance to advertisers by building on ratings mechanism analytics, and combining this with its growing TV viewership and radio listenership.
“Astro’s total advertising revenue rose by four per cent year-on-year to RM440 million,” added Rohana.
The company has declared a third interim dividend of 2.25 sen per share, bringing the total dividend for the nine months of financial year ending January 2015 to 6.75 sen per share, which is 12.5 per cent higher compared to six sen per share in the same period last year.
