Media Prima revenue hit by dip in adex, newspaper sales and digital

Media Prima has seen a dip advertising expenditure, newspaper sales and digital segment. The media company said in its latest financials that it saw a dip in revenue from RM280.7 million last year to RM239.1 million during the first quarter ended 31 March 2019 (Q1 2019).It recorded a loss after tax of RM42.8 million in Q1 2019 compared to RM23.0 million last year due to a drop in advertising expenditure and newspaper sales. Its digital segment also saw a dip in revenue from RM19.1 million last year to RM17.4 million this year. This was a result of slower growth from digital advertising and digital marketing early in the year.On the other hand, Media Prima Television Networks’ CJ WOW SHOP posted a 24% increase in total sales to RM54.5 million in Q1 2019 from RM44.0 million last year. During Q1 2019, Media Prima continued to diversify its revenue streams through investing in new growth areas across the group. This includes focusing more resources in eSports development and digital innovations in its traditional business segments.Media Prima Digital’s gaming division, MyGameOn, launched an eSports campus event this year, XPAX Kejohanan E-Sukan Kampus 2019, in collaboration with Kitamen and XPAX. Its OOH segment, Big Tree, launched Big+ which is an extension of the company’s OOH integrated offerings to expand audience reach via traditional and digital methods. Through its three key offerings — geofence technology, image scanning technology and dynamic digital content — Big+ bridges the gap between awareness, consideration and purchase, increases engagement, and creates opportunities for target marketing and sequential messaging.In the content field, the group also tied up with iflix to offer 1,000 hours of its content to iflix users following their linear TV broadcast. This partnership helps expand Media Prima’s digital reach across Malaysia and increase its online video views significantly.  As Media Prima embarks on digital-driven and commerce business strategies, the financial statement said its traditional media platforms continue to deliver substantial results to the group. The group maintained its “dominant broadcast position” in TV during Q1 2019 while Primeworks Studios sold over 70 titles and 500 hours of content to more than 10 platforms across 100 countries.Group MD Kamal Khalid (pictured) said structural changes in the media sector will continue to disrupt the group’s traditional segments. However, its existing traditional brands still command an “extensive reach and strong monetisation opportunities”.“While we will keep a close watch on our traditional businesses, digital and commerce revenue will remain our key focus areas in 2019. We have become an established player in the digital realm having secured our leadership position for content on mobile devices in Malaysia,” he said.Moving forward, he added that the group will continue to invest its resources in key growth areas as it is driven to see Media Prima become Malaysia’s leading digital-first content and commerce company. Meanwhile, group chairman of Media Prima, Mohd Nasir Ahmad, said as proven from past trends, it believes that its financial results are “not reflective” of the group’s performance for the entire financial year.“Q1 2019 was a challenging period not only for the media sector as unfavourable macroeconomics conditions, such as weak consumer sentiment and lower gross domestic product growth, have affected various industries. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we anticipate better performance in the next quarter of the financial year as we align our business with the economic recovery,” he added.