Astro registers continuous growth

Astro continues to soar higher as it achieved a revenue growth of 10% to RM4.3 billion in financial year ended 31  January (FY2013). This was unveiled in its latest AGM.Astro posted a higher revenue growth of 14% to RM1.1 billion for the first quarter of the financial year ending January 2014.In the first quarter of current financial year, pay-TV customers increased by 40,000 to 3.32 million (Q4FY13: 3.28million), while NJOI customers grew by 55,000 to 264,000 (Q4FY13: 209,000), bringing total customers to 3.58 million, representing 53% of total TV households in Malaysia.Subscribers on Astro B.yond rose to 2.18 million (Q4FY13: 1.97 million), representing 66% (Q4FY13: 60%) of total pay-TV subscribers.Out of the 2.18 million subscribers on Astro B.yond, 1.4 million are on HD service (Q4FY13: 1.26 million), 343,000 are on Personal Video Recording (PVR) (Q4FY13: 299k), 245,000 are on Multiroom (Q4FY13: 218k) and 784,000 are on Superpack bundle (Q4FY13: 727k).Astro First and Astro Best, which offer the latest movies on demand, have registered over 6.2 million buys since launch. All of the above have contributed to an increase in ARPU to RM94.20 (Q4FY13: RM93.20).Powered by higher TV viewership and radio listenership, Astro's Adex also grew 21% to RM115 million (Q1FY13: RM95 million), outperforming the industry's growth rate. Astro's share of TV Adex stood at 29% and share of Radex at 53%.Dato' Rohana Rozhan (pictured second from right), chief executive officer of Astro commented, "Our focus remains to strongly execute on our strategic imperatives of achieving growth in customers, ARPU and Adex by providing more choices, compelling content, convenience and value for consumers."She adds that it will focus on migrating its customer base onto the Astro B.yond platform and that its "focus is to deliver more customers, ARPU and advertising spend, through disciplined investments and innovations".