KUALA LUMPUR: Media Prima Bhd’s (Media Prima) net loss in the third-quarter (Q3) ended September 30, 2019, narrowed to RM24.16 million from a net loss of RM30.71 million recorded a year ago.
In an exchange filing today, Media Prima said lower loss was attributed to the declining trend of core advertising and circulation revenue.
Its Q3 revenue eased 2.30 per cent to RM265.55 million from RM271.80 million posted in the same period a year ago due to decline in traditional media segment.
For the first-nine months of 2019 (9M19), Media Prima’s net loss widened to RM73.40 million from a net loss of RM20.58 million a year ago, offset by RM801.41 million in revenue for the period.
In a separate statement today, the fully-integrated media group said tougher operating conditions continued to impact the group’s performance as a whole.
Media Prima group chairman Datuk Syed Hussian Aljunid said the group’s overall performance continues to be challenged due to the decline in traditional advertising and circulation revenues.
“As we head into the final months of 2019, we will accelerate the next phase of our transformation to adapt our businesses to the fast-changing conditions in the media sector,” he said in a statement today.
Media Prima group managing director Datuk Kamal Khalid said the company will continue to build on the positive growth achieved by its digital and commerce initiatives while taking measures to further improve our costs and operational efficiencies.
“The next phase of our business transformation aims to deliver more effective solutions across our various media platforms to meet the evolving demands of the media industry,” he added.
The group’s home shopping and digital revenue increased 9.0 per cent for 9M19.Its television network’s CJ WOW SHOP remained on the upswing with a 12 per cent increase to RM169.9 million in 9MFY19 against RM151.9 million recorded previously.
Media Prima had also maintained its leadership positions as Malaysia’s most popular source for content. According to Comscore, the group remains Malaysia’s top choice for mobile content and has the third-highest digital audience reach behind Google and Facebook.
In film production, Primeworks Studios’ (PWS) Sangkar climbed high at the Malaysian box office having collected over RM12.0 million after three weeks in cinemas nationwide.
PWS aims to release two more films this year — Wira on 21 November and Ejen Ali the Movie on 28 November.
Big Tree, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, has retained its dominant market position as Malaysia’s leading out-of-home solutions provider.
In broadcast media, Media Prima remained Malaysia’s most-watched channels with a 35.2 per cent television audience share.
The New Straits Times Press’ online brand for Harian Metro recorded the highest unique visitors for online news in Malaysia for the third quarter of 2019.
According to Comscore, myMetro reached 13.6 million unique visitors from July to September 2019. Meanwhile, the average monthly unique visitors for BH Online and NST Online is 4.2 million and 2.0 million respectively.
Meanwhile, Media Prima announced it will embark on the next phase of its transformation exercise.
This includes changing its business model and restructuring internally to enable the group to be sustainable given uncertain macroeconomic conditions and disruptive changes in the global and local media sector.
Traditional advertising and circulation revenues for the nine months dropped by 15 per cent and 21 per cent respectively, against the corresponding period.
Overall cautious spending contributed to revenue decline across the group’s business segments.