KUALA LUMPUR: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd's net profit nose dived to RM15.89 million in the first quarter of financial year 2024 that ended April 30, 2023 from RM100.02 million a year ago, due to higher content, broadband and staff-related costs and net financing costs due to unfavourable unrealised foreign exchange from unhedged lease of transponders.
This was on a 7.38 per cent drop in revenue to RM891.13 million from RM962.09 million previously due to the decrease in subscription revenue, advertising revenue and merchandise sales.
On a segmental basis, revenue from the television was 5.7 per cent lower to RM810.6 million from RM859.2 million due to decrease in subscription revenue and advertising revenue, which was partly offset by an increase in sales of programming rights.
As for the radio segment, revenue was RM46.3 million or 13.1 per cent lower from RM48.8 million due to higher advertising spend due to various major festive activities, FIFA World Cup paired with New Year celebration for the same quarter in FY2023.
On home shopping, revenue for the current quarter of RM34.2m was lowered by 36.7 per cent compared with the preceding quarter of RM54.0 million due to year end sales during the preceding quarter.
FY24 will see Astro continuing to invest in delivering the best content experience, across all platforms, through New Astro; becoming Malaysia's No.1 aggregator of the best streaming and lifestyle apps; elevating local content with high production value and premium storytelling via our Astro Originals, signatures and movies; ramping up the growth of our streaming app sooka, broadband and addressable advertising; and leveraging digital, data and technology to reimagine our business models and transform our legacy cost base.
Astro's earnings per share declined to 0.30 sen from 1.92 sen a year ago. Its share price closed lower at 66 sen per share today.