TVB to grow digital ad income in 2024 amid revenue growth

Local broadcaster TVB has seen a 8% growth in revenue in 2023 thanks to a 9% rise in income from advertisers. It will further grow its digital advertising income from its various digital assets including myTV SUPER in 2024.

According to the official announcement on HKEX, TVB achieved 32% higher unit rates for its Jade channel prime time TV advertising slots in 2023, compared to the previous year. It said programmes such as The Queen of News (新聞女王) and Midlife, Sing & Shine! (中年好聲音) helped bring in advertisers for premium and luxury goods, as well as banking and financial services.

Furthermore, the revenue for TVB’s over-the-top (OTT) segment increased by 2% to HK$356m, driven by growth in advertising income. Its myTV SUPER streaming platform has recorded two million average monthly active users for 2023 and 2022. 

However, TVB’s eCommerce revenue declined by 44% to HK$486m as the segment was affected by a weak local retail market and shifts in consumer habits. In response to the market changes, TVB is reducing operating costs, and focusing on higher-margin products. In the latter part of 2023, TVB also merged its Ztore platform with Neigbuy to enhance efficiency.

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In terms of mainland China operations, the revenue increased by 4% to HK$729m, primarily driven by higher revenue from its drama co-production and multi-channel network (MCN) businesses. Drama co-production revenue grew by 72% after TVB signed coproduction agreements with Youku and Tencent. Meanwhile, its MCN business achieved a total gross merchandise volume (GMV) of over RMB$570m for the year. 

Since the beginning of 2023, TVB had implemented measures to reduce operating costs. Overall, total cash operating costs of the group came down by 12% to HK$3.4m for the year. Of this, general and administrative expenses came down by HK$125m during the year; and it ended the Year with 3,496 employees, which is 13% less than its headcount a year ago.

Moving forward, TVB said apart from traditional TV airtime-based advertising, it is further growing its digital advertising income from its various digital assets including myTV SUPER, and expect to achieve strong double-digit growth in digital advertising income in 2024.

In terms of its terrestrial TV channel offerings, TVB is transitioning from the current five-channel lineup to a slimmed-down four-channel lineup in the second quarter of 2024, after it announced the merger of its current J2 and TVB Finance, Sports & Information (FSI) channels into a new “TVB Plus” channel.

The new channel will feature a combination of young audience, sports and information programmes. As a result, TVB expects to save approximately HK$100 million a year in content and other operating costs.

Meanwhile, TVB said the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is also a key growth area that it has recently negotiated new terms with its signal carriage partner in Guangdong which enables it to jointly sell advertising spots on its Jade and Pearl channel broadcast feeds.

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