Customers: Increased Reach and Deeper Engagement

 

Astro’s total customers grew by 7% year-over-year from 5.1 million to 5.5 million, an increased TV household reach from 71% to 75% in FY18, primarily driven by NJOI. At the same time, NJOI’s revenue grew by 21% year-over-year to RM100 million, as its skinny bundles and ala carte prepaid choices gained traction. Pay TV remains resilient despite competition, with global best in class churn of 9.6%, ARPU of RM99.9 and incoming ARPU of RM67.7.

 

Adex: Achieved Growth in a Soft Market

 

Total Malaysia’s Adex declined by 8% year-over-year from RM4.9 billion to RM4.5 billion. Astro’s total Adex however, registered a 2% growth year-over-year from RM705 million to RM722 million. This includes Digital Adex which grew 17% from RM30 million to RM35 million. This leads to a share of 44% and 74% in TV Adex and Radex respectively. This trajectory is expected to continue with focussed efforts on providing solutions to both agencies and advertisers alike, driven increasingly by customer persona data.

 

Content: Focused on Vernacular, Nusantara Premium Originals and Live Sports

Rohana said, “Our content cost of RM1.6bn in FY18 was 33% of our TV revenue and was within our guidance of between 32% and 35%. In major sporting years such as 2018, content cost is expected to be approximately two percentage points higher. In light of global competition, we have renegotiated key international content to ensure we aggregate choice content for our customers, encompassing all the requisite rights for On Demand, increased portability and box sets whilst securing better economics given these rights are rapidly being commoditised. At the same time, we have reinvested these savings into our content by deepening our commitment to vernacular and regional content, particularly in signature, premium local and Nusantara IPs as they clearly differentiate our product proposition vis a vis global competitors.”

 

To this end, Astro has entered into win-win partnerships with local and regional content powerhouses such as Grup Majalah Karangkraf and Emtek, as well as talents, award-winning directors and producers like Ifa Isfansyah and Salman Aristo from Indonesia, Kiatkamon Iamphungporn from Thailand and Bianca Balbuena from the Philippines. This has resulted in the production of key original content IPs for ASEAN audiences like 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories, Gantung, Do[s]a and Doors. Astro’s animation kids IP, Cam & Leon co-produced with Giggle Garage, has been licensed to Indonesia’s Global TV and will be available on Amazon Prime Video in the US.

 

This year Astro further strengthens its position as the home of sports with live broadcast of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™, Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, Jakarta 2018 Asian Games and the 2018/2019 Premier League season in August. To amplify live sports conversation among fans in Malaysia on social media, Astro has partnered with Twitter to provide sports clips and content on Stadium Astro’s twitter account.

 

Talent: Upskilling, reskilling and retooling our talent

 

Astro is committed to hiring talent with requisite skillsets in focus areas such as data science, analytics and cloud computing, in addressing the need to pace up the process of upskilling, reskilling and retooling our human capital. The company is reinvesting in its people, where over 1,200 of its talents have undergone the Certified Innovator Programme, run in conjunction with Amazon, to inculcate a culture of agility and reinvention. Astro also aims to fully capture the potential of social influencer talent through its influencer marketing arm, Rocketfuel Entertainment, which manages over 100 influential personalities in beauty, fashion, lifestyle, automotive and parenting across ASEAN. Rocketfuel aims to leverage on Astro’s talent pool and expertise in content creation to meet advertisers’ growing demand for talent-driven digital content regionally.

 

Regional Scale: New Growth Engines Are Gaining Traction

 

Regional online video streaming service, Tribe, saw a 312% growth in total installs year-over-year to 3.1 million in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore by forging complementary win-win partnerships in the region.

 

To accelerate scaling up its user base, Tribe is pleased to announce it has entered into collaboration with Telkomsel, the largest mobile operator in Indonesia to offer Tribe as a bundled product to its VideoMax subscriber base. The partnership will give Tribe the opportunity to tap into Telkomsel’s user base of over 170 million with 60 million mobile data users.

 

Go Shop, our commerce arm grew its revenue by 11% to RM290 million and saw its registered customers increase by 38% year-over-year to 1.3 million in Malaysia and Singapore, predominantly driven by marketing campaigns across digital and social media platforms. Go Shop also introduced innovative programme formats such as live demo shows by celebrities and short-form digital content to widen its appeal to more audience segments and will launch more premium curated products, exciting new programmes and partnerships to further spur growth.

 

Outlook

 

Astro aims to deliver growth by opportunistically enhancing our customer experiences whilst aligning our investments and media assets to optimise our resources. Their key focus will be in reclaiming the premium experience for our customers at home and seamlessly on the move, a push for commerce, as well as a focus on signature vernaculars in particular Malay and Nusantara. There will be a renewed obsession on the different customer personas backed by investments and skills, they aspire to serve, backed by dynamic data and analytics, which will be the focal point of all teams from customer to technology and content. Astro is positioned as a premium and long-term content and consumer brand that delivers best-in-class services, underpinning our commitment to sustain strong and continued value creation for our shareholders.