PETALING JAYA: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd has recorded a net profit of RM141.25mil for its first financial quarter ended April 30, a 91.29% increase year-on-year (y-o-y) from RM73.84mil.

       This was mainly due to lower content costs and impairment of receivables, offset by higher merchandise costs, marketing and distribution costs and licence, copyright and royalty fees as a percentage of revenue.

       The group’s revenue inched up 0.8% y-o-y from RM1.05 to RM1.06bil for the quarter, attributable to the increased advertising revenue, merchandise sales and others.

       These were offset by a decrease in subscription revenue.

       Astro’s advertising expenditure (adex) grew 21% y-o-y to RM109mil, outperforming the advertising industry growth of 9%.

       The group said the ongoing lockdown continued to dampen revenue performance in adex, where clients have been cautious and in the commercial establishment and hotel business, impacted by low traffic and occupancy.

       Television viewership share was stable at 72%. The shares of radio adex (radex), TV adex and digital adex stood at 78%, 39% and 3% respectively.

       Astro chairman Tun Zaki Azmi said the group posted a strong recovery amid a reimposition of the lockdown.

       “Astro continued to be cash generative, cost disciplined and proactive in its capital management. “The board has declared a first interim dividend of 1.5 sen per share,” he said in a statement.

       Group chief executive officer Henry Tan said its financial year ending Jan 31, 2022, would be an action-packed year.

       “We continue to execute on our strategy and in June, we introduced two new streaming services - sooka, featuring live sports and winning local content for millennials and Disney+ Hotstar with amazing content at an incredible value.

       “Customers can look forward to more exciting additions as we push ahead with our ambition to be Malaysia’s No.1 aggregator of the best streaming services,” he said.