PCCW H1 2021 revenue increases, free TV business to make profit soon

PCCW has announced its interim results with an increase in core revenue thanks to the recovery of the economy from a severe recession amid COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, while its free TV and related business has been an impressive growth of 97%. 

According to its interim results announcement for the six months ended on 30 June, 2021, PCCW said it recorded a robust performance across its core businesses of telecommunications, media and IT services. Its core revenue increased by 9% to HK$18,143 million. Both over the top (OTT) and free TV, as well as its related business, maintained their growth momentum with revenue expanding 29% and 97% respectively.

PCCW's free TV business ViuTV's advertising business thrived in H1 2021, with incremental spending from both new and existing advertisers attributable to the company's local content and the increasing popularity of talent such as MIRROR. As a result, advertising revenue increased by 66% to HK$188 million. PCCW added that its artiste management and event business also benefited from the increased viewership, while MIRROR performed sold-out concerts earlier this year and group members starred in the ads of international brands. As a whole, the free TV and related business almost doubled its revenue to HK$256 million. 

The enlarged scale of business and increased revenue helped narrow the free TV and related business’s EBITDA loss from HK$95 million for H1 2020 to H1 2021 HK$44 million, It's expected that such business is on track to reach profitability in the near future.

Reviewing its success, PCCW attributed ViuTV's growth to broadcasting the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 supplemented with a range of team-based game programmes to further drive viewership and monetisation. Looking forward, PCCW will continue to offer unique local content to maintain growth momentum, for example, the recent broadcast of Ossan’s Love (HK version) was a huge success and received overwhelming responses from the Hong Kong community.

When it comes to the OTT business continued its growth trajectory in H1 2021, with its revenue growing by 29% to HK$646 million. This growth was underpinned by the strong performance of its video streaming service, Viu, which attained a 47% revenue growth to HK$485 million. Furthermore, the resumption of live events helped its music business to recover gradually.

Driving its advertising-subscription dual revenue model, Viu had a highly engaged user base of 49.4 million monthly active users and paid subscribers of seven million as of 30 June 2021, representing substantial growth of 37% and 62% respectively. This increment has translated to 54% and 40% growth in Viu’s advertising and related revenue and subscription revenue respectively. Viu is available in 16 markets across Greater Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Africa with Thailand and Indonesia as two of our largest and fastest-growing markets.

Photo Courtesy: PCCW's website

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