ITV

Tag: RM

  • Astro Q1 net profit doubles to $ 151.24 million

    Astro Q1 net profit doubles to $ 151.24 million

    MUMBAI: Astro All Asia Networks plc’s net profit has doubled to RM39.8 million ( $ 151.24 mn) in the first quarter ended 30 April 2005 on strength of higher subscriber growth.

    Consolidated revenues rose 21 per cent to RM473.2 million ($180 bn) during this period. The pay-television business registered a gain of 65,000 subscribers, bringing the total to 1.76 million.

    The continuing growth in profitability and cash flow in its existing business would provide strong support as the group extended its multimedia platform and content businesses into the region, Astro chairman Datuk Badri Masri said.

    Astro also announced a $4.25 million (US$1 = RM3.80) investment for a 51 per cent stake in All Asia Television Broadcast Ltd. Hong Kong’s Yes Television will hold the remaining stake in a venture that would distribute two 24-hour football channels in the Asian region.

    The venture will broadcast GOALTV 1 and 2, which carry the official channels of English Premier League’s top football clubs, namely Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. Astro will begin the broadcast in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia later this year.

    In December 2004, Astro and South Indian media major Sun TV had entered into a $ 25 million agreement for the establishment of a joint venture to originate, aggregate and distribute television programming and channels for global audience. Also proposed in the deal were a Bengali channel for distribution in India, South East Asia and other markets within the Bengali diaspora., and a Tamil channel in Malaysia on the Astro platform. While the Bengali channel Surjo is targeting a September launch, the Tamil channel Sun TV will be launched in July.

  • New report examines opportunities in TV messaging

    MUMBAI: Research and Markets (R&M) has announced the publication of a report. SMS to MMS TV-Messaging – Services move far beyond SMS-voting. It provides a detailed analysis of the opportunities available in television messaging.
    The European report has noted that free-to-air broadcasters are increasingly using messaging, typically to add interactivity to programming produced in-house, and to conduct mobile marketing campaigns. Some, like the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), have been using messaging for some time. NRK started deploying SMS capabilities in 1999. NRK offers a number of SMS subscription services, including news and sports alerts, and polls.
    The report contains two case studies detailing NRK and FremantleMedia’s usage of TV-messaging and their successes and failures. It studies how NRK became the first broadcaster to use mobile messaging on TV. It allows the reader to understand the challenges encountered by FremantleMedia upon introducing the US to SMS voting.
    The report examines the reasons behind the desirability of TV messaging and the barriers to its wider spread amongst broadcasters. This report details the different roles of SMS voting, chat and communities and competitions in driving audience participation and analyse how operator revenue shares are affecting broadcasters. In addition analysis is provided of the reasons that make MMS a better proposition for broadcasters than SMS.
    R&M claims to be Europe’s largest resource for market research. R&M distribute thousands of major research publications from the world’s leading publishers, consultants and market analysts.