The Star Media Group looks beyond print to add on revenue

Most recently, the Star Media Group sold 52.51% stake in Cityneon Holdings for SG$115.61 million or RM360.18 million cash to investment holding company, Lucrum 1 Investment. This deal is expected to allow Star Media Group to realise a gain on disposal of about SG$68.71 million or RM214.07 million.Today, a new article on the publication said with the added dollars the company will now look to diversify into areas other than print, despite bringing in a bulk of revenue. The move comes as no surprise as the revenue from print is declining for the group, and by no means is the publication alone in this arena.Traditional media revenue on the whole has been on the decline. Most recently, this prompted Media Prima, Malaysia’s largest integrated media group to acquire 100% of REV Asia Holdings, one of Southeast Asia’s leading digital media groups. The acquisition, at a cost of RM105.0 million, was made to focus on expansion in digital content and digital media platforms.Meanwhile in Singapore, traditional media outlets such as Singapore Press Holdings also faced similar issues, with its media business seeing yoy decline, along with revenue as advertisement revenue. This led to the national newspaper publication having to expand into diverse areas such as healthcare through the acquisition of Orange Valley Healthcare.The SPH family also beefed up its content marketing to draw in some dollars. SPH Content Lab, a multimedia content marketing unit, was set up as a one-stop shop for content marketing which is supported by SPH archives, research and insights, and creative partners, stated the company.Meanwhile, the group has also actively been marketing its OTT service dimsum aggressively, launched late last year. Although it isn’t going to be a significant contributor to the group’s revenue in FY17, just yesterday it released news on its second branded VOD content in a month, tying up with ASEAN travel-focused initiative, GOASEAN which will see the platform offering various travel-related content.