Declined income from advertisers causes TVB revenue to drop

Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) has announced its interim 2019 results with a decrease of 12% of revenue due to the absence of co-production revenue and declined income from advertisers under Hong Kong TV broadcasting during the first half of the year.According to TVB’s interim results – which were announced yesterday – revenue has decreased from HK$2,231 million to HK$1,965 million, a decrease attributed to the absence of co-production revenue during the first half of 2019. Co-production revenue for the first half of 2018 amounted to HK$194 million.TVB has expected that as co-productions resume, its income for 2019 will come into its own in the second half of the financial year.Income from advertisers under Hong Kong TV broadcasting decreased from HK$1,151 million to HK$1,136 million, a decline of 1%. Income from new media, including myTV SUPER and the Big Big Channel business, in aggregate, rose from HK$210 million to HK$287 million, an increase of 37%.Meanwhile, the number of registered users of myTV SUPER service has increased to over 7.7 million as of 30 June 2019. Because of an enlarged user base and steadily increasing consumption, subscriptions, and advertising income from myTV, SUPER has increased from HK$182 million to HK$226 million, a 24% growth year-on-year.As for Big Big Channel, income has increased from HK$27 million to HK$61 million, a growth of 2.2 times.Looking forward, TVB has admitted that income from Hong Kong businesses – particularly conventional and new media advertising – might be adversely affected by the recent political unrest in the city, along with uncertainties associated with the trade dispute between China and the US. Hong Kong Economic Journal’s has reported that TVB is expecting an “extremely cautious attitude” from its clients’ over their spending plans on ads.Last month, brands such as Pocari Sweat and Wonder Life withdrew their ads from the broadcaster in response to the poor public perception of its news coverage, with specific issues related to a pro-government bias.TVB also stated that it is looking for ways to widen its advertising client base and undertake aggressive business development in mainland China and overseas.