KUALA LUMPUR: Astro Malaysia’s net profit rose 31.1% to RM168.30mil for the first quarter ended April 31, 2015, from RM128.33mil a year ago due to an increase in its earnings as well as decrease in amortisation of software and net financial costs.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, the company said the increase in its earnings accounted to RM31.3mil and the decrease in amortisation of software and net financial costs amounted to RM4.4mil and RM7mil respectively.
Meanwhile, its revenue for the quarter increased 6.1% to RM1.33bil compared to RM1.25bil a year ago due to an increase in subscription, advertising and other revenue of RM33.4mil, RM14mil, and RM28.8mil respectively.
Furthermore, Astro said its television segment posted an increase in total revenue of 2.9% from a year ago driven by an increase in subscription and advertising revenue of RM33.4mil and RM5.5mil respectively, which was offset by a decrease in other revenue of RM4.3mil.
“The increase in subscription revenue is attributed to both an increase in average revenue per user for Pay-TV residential subscribers of RM1.90 and an increase in number of Pay-TV residential subscribers by 34,100,” it added.
On the other hand, Astro said that its radio revenue for the quarter was up 15.9% to RM61.8mil compared to RM53.3mil a year ago spurred by pricing, strong inventory take-up, strong listenership ratings and seasonality factors.
“Our strong TV viewership and radio listenership combined with our integrated media offering across TV, Radio and Digital media continues to assist advertisers to engage with our customers across all demographics,” Astro noted.
The company said it has strengthened its portfolio of channel brands for both pay-TV and NJOI customers.
In order for its profitability to improve, it believes that the ability to buy additional premium content on NJOI, and enhancing products and services would boost its revenue.
“We are increasing our investment in high quality original programming, which we are increasingly making available on the cloud for Astro on the Go,” Astro said.
Its earnings per share for the quarter was up 3.23sen per share compared to 2.47sen per share a year ago.
Although the company expected the current financial year ending Jan 31, 2016 to have a challenging economic outlook, it believes it will remain cash generative and will be able to invest in its growth strategy, while keeping a progressive dividend policy.
