Astro sees 40% growth in digital, Netflix to acquire its series Demon's Path

Astro has witnessed a 5% year-on-year (yoy) increase to RM153 million following profit after tax and minority interests for the third quarter of the financial year ending 31 January 2019 (Q3FY19). This was lifted by a rebound in adex and supported by other revenue contributors including e-commerce and theatrical sales.Astro's adex posted an 11% increase in revenue to RM179 million, with a 40% growth in digital adex to RM14 million. Improved adex performance was underpinned by resumption of ad spend after the tax holiday period. Meanwhile, its share of TV adex and radio adex remained strong at 43% and 74% respectively.Go Shop's customer base jumped by 35% yoy to 1.6 million and recorded its highest ever quarterly revenue at RM98 million. According to the financial statement, Go Shop will continue to provide value, increase its product variety and create more entertaining content to cater to different customer segments.In the meantime, Astro's connected boxes increased by 37% yoy to 963,000 households, while registered Astro GO users grew by 38% yoy to 2.1 million. Its push for local movies have been met with success, with the movie Polis Evo 2 premiering in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia. Other release this year include Paskal The Movie and Hantu Kak Limah, which grossed RM30 million and RM38 million respectively.Netflix has also recently acquired worldwide rights for Astro produced Hong Kong 13-episode drama series Demon's Path. The show will be made available to subscribers worldwide, except in China, from 22 December 2018. Celestial Movies Channel had earlier picked up the rights for Demon's Path for Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. The drama series is also available on BOO, Astro’s Asian Horror Channel in Malaysia and the Philippines. Demon's Path was produced in partnership with Hong Kong production company, What a Sunny Day.Meanwhile, Astro's CEO designate, Henry Tan (pictured), said the company has had "a decent quarter" predicated on its strong market reach, which has grown 6% yoy to 5.7 million customers, reaching 76% of Malaysian households. This enabled better monetisation across its verticals of pay, prepaid, adex and e-commerce.He added that Astro is implementing a strategic review of its business and organisational structure, including deeper cost rationalisation and workforce optimisation, which will incur one-off costs in the coming months."This exercise will enable us to remain competitive, efficient and agile so we can pursue opportunities in key growth areas such as broadband, membership and rewards, production of premium content, adex and e-commerce," Tan said.In September this year, Astro’s e-sports and gaming entertainment network, eGG Network, tied up with e-sports event producer PGL and content distribution platform Imba TV to launch “The Kuala Lumpur Major”. According to Astro's financial statement, the tournament clocked over seven million hours of views.Read also:Astro strikes programmatic video partnership with TelariaAstro’s promotion of product comes under scrutiny from MCMC after public complaintsAstro partners Les’ Copaque for distribution and marketing of animation contentAstro and Maxis partner up to help Sulawesi victimsAstro secures broadcast rights for 3 Premier League seasons