Kuala Lumpur – Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) announced its results for the financial year ended January 31, 2014 on March 31. During the last 12 months, the Company achieved double digit growth; with revenue increasing by 12% from RM4.3bn to RM4.8bn, while EBITDA rose 16% from RM1.4bn to RM1.6bn.

Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro said, “The Company has executed strongly on its growth strategies and maintained its strong cash generation capabilities. We continue to deliver on our commitment of a progressive dividend policy, having paid three interim dividends of 2.0 sen per share. The Board of Directors is pleased to declare a fourth interim dividend of 2.0 sen per share and to propose a final dividend of 1.0 sen per share, subject to shareholders’ approval. This brings the total dividend for the year to 9.0 sen per share.”

Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro said, “We have delivered four consecutive quarters of double digit revenue growth in FY14, underpinned by expansion of our customer base, higher take-up of value added products and services, as well as industry leading Adex growth. During the year, we successfully grew our total customer base by 400k to 3.9mn, which translates to 56% Malaysian TV household penetration. We have now completed the swap-out of our Pay-TV customers onto the Astro B.yond platform, and it is highly encouraging to see that our customers are increasingly taking up our product, value and service propositions; for example HD, PVR, VOD and AOTG. This is how we have been able to grow ARPU from RM93.2 to RM96.0. It has also been pleasing to see continued strong demand for our signature content offerings; which has resulted in 15 shows exceeding the 1 million viewership mark this year, and which has been enhanced by an additional 12 channels, 7 of which are in HD.”

In addition, Astro registered a robust 15% growth in Adex to RM582mn, from RM504mn a year earlier, largely contributed by increasing penetration of Malaysian households, strong TV viewership share and radio listenership. Share of TV viewership increased to 47%, up from 43% in FY13, whilst Astro’s radio listenership of 12.2mn reflected its leading position as the No.1 radio station in the Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil languages according to Nielsen Radio Audience Measurement survey results.

Customer demand in Q4FY14 was strong across the board with healthy growth recorded across all product segments. Q4FY14 saw Pay-TV customers increasing by 40k to 3.44mn (Q3FY14: 3.40mn) and NJOI customers rising by 60k to 442k (Q3FY14: 382k), bringing Astro’s total customer base to 3.9mn, i.e. 56% (Q3FY14: 55%) of Malaysian TV households. The number of customers on the Astro B.yond platform continued its upward trend, increasing by 176k to 2.9mn (Q3FY14: 2.7mn), representing 84% (Q3FY14: 80%) of Pay-TV customers.

Pay-TV ARPU increased to RM96.0 (Q3FY14: RM95.6) as Astro’s value-added products and services such as HD, PVR, VOD and AOTG saw higher take-up. During the year, a total of 7 new HD channels were introduced resulting in a total of 39 channels now being offered in HD. 1.68mn customers now enjoy Astro channels in HD (Q3FY14: 1.61mn), 532k have the PVR function (Q3FY14: 468k), 312k are Multiroom customers (Q3FY14: 289k), and 880k are on Astro Superpack (Q3FY14: 857k) while 196k have taken up Astro Valuepack (Q3FY14: 152k).

Dato’ Rohana Rozhan said, “We are focused on enhancing our digital proposition. Our ambition is to be the #1 digital platform for “Watch, Listen, Read and Play” by becoming the platform of choice for Malaysians to consume their favourite media in a seamless manner across all devices.”

“Our Astro On-The-Go (AOTG) App continues to be well-received with 847k downloads as at end-Jan 2014, more than double from 398k a year earlier, as consumers increasingly watch Astro content via tablets, smartphones and PCs. Our AOTG average weekly viewing time has also doubled from 35 minutes in FY13 to 72 minutes this year, as customers responded positively to greater flexibility and choice. Astro customers are able to watch up to 30 linear channels, live sports events, catch up and video on demand on AOTG.”

“We aim to strengthen our market leading sports proposition by airing all 64 live matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ on 5 dedicated HD channels and 5 dedicated SD channels, as well as making it available for consumption on tablets, smartphones and computers via the Astro Go FIFA World Cup™ App. In addition, we will also be broadcasting live coverage of the 17th Asian Games Incheon 2014 and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Furthermore, with the expected delivery of additional transponders later this year, we will significantly increase our broadcast capacity which will enable us to line up a comprehensive suite of value-added, content-rich and feature-packed offerings for Malaysians in 2014. We aim to meet our customers’ entertainment needs at all price points, whilst growing our customer base, ARPU and share of Adex,” she added.