Kuala Lumpur– Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) announced its first six months results of the financial year ending 31 January 2016. They declared a 4% y-o-y growth in revenue to RM2.7 billion, a 7% rise in EBITDA to RM962 million, and a 15% increase in PATAMI to RM306 million; leading to Free Cash Flow (FCF) generation of RM589 million.

Tun Zaki Azmi Chairman of Astro says, “Amidst a challenging operating environment coupled with soft consumer sentiment, the group continues to deliver on its growth strategies to generate shareholder value creation. On that note, the Board is pleased to declare a second interim dividend of 2.75 cents per share, 22% higher compared to the same period last year.”

Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro says, “We added 426K net TV customers in H1FY16, underpinned by strong take-up of NJOI (+58% y-o-y to 1,071K). This has increased our Malaysian TV households’ penetration rate to 65% in H1FY16. (H1FY15: 60%).”

“We are driving take up of connected boxes and of Astro on the Go from 181K now to 500K by year end. We have launched a new download feature for Astro on the Go, where programmes can be downloaded on mobile devices for offline viewing. Astro on the Go downloads has increased by 31% y-o-y to 1.6mn with weekly viewing time exceeding 140 minutes.”

Dato’ Rohana adds, “Advertising income registered a 5% growth to RM305 million, supported by higher TV viewership, radio listenership and growing interest in digital media. Greater utilisation of analytics and close collaboration with our key advertisers and media buyers has also contributed to growth in our share of Adex to 35%. A share of TV Radex has also increased to 61%. Go Shop, our e-commerce venture, achieved encouraging results with revenue of RM75 million in H1FY16. Also, customers can look forward to a Chinese language Go Shop channel in Q4FY16.”