Astro Group to focus on mobile for revenues

Astro has announced plans to push mobile features to cater to the growing population of smartphone users in Malaysia.Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, chief executive officer of Astro has said: “We have set ourselves clear targets to address the 80% Malaysians who own smart mobile devices."According to the company's financial results, AOTG downloads have increased by 60% to 1.4mn in FY15, while weekly viewing time rose 35% to 96 minutes. The company has plans to introduce more features to enable users to download their favourite shows onto their devices, added Rohana. This would enable live streaming of news, sports and events.Astro will continue to drive take up of connected boxes and usage of PVRs.  Rohana said that efforts across all of these areas have seen Astro's digital traffic increased more than two-fold last year, with especially strong performance on mobile web usage.In addition, a latest Nielsen study covering 28 of Astro’s 184 channels reveals that while ad revenue for Astro’s fell 2.3% to RM327.2mil , the overall ad revenue for Astro rose due to radio’s higher earnings. Astro’s higher radio revenue translated into a 1% increase in overall Astro advertising income to RM589mil.Dato’ Rohana added, “In a continuing soft consumer market, we are confident of delivering growth by committing to innovative products, services, experience and compelling content. We are also forging ahead to develop Astro’s e-commerce value proposition to meet the fast growing demand of online shopping."Read also: Biggest growth in digital adspend to come from APAC: Carat