PETALING JAYA: Media Prima Bhd has launched a newly integrated digital media arm, Media Prima Digital, which will become the group’s new source of revenue and be targeted to be one of the core businesses in future.
Media Prima Digital is an integration between Media Prima’s new media business subsidiary, Alt Media Sdn Bhd, and The New Straits Times Press Bhd’s (NSTP) E-Media Sdn Bhd.
The integration is part of Media Prima’s broader strategy of streamlining and optimising its digital business, which now exists across several platforms covering print, broadcast and radio.
Analysts said the integration of Alt Media and E-Media is to answer the Star Publications (M) Bhd and Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s earlier moves to broaden and expand their new media businesses to take advantage of the 4G introduction next year.
The 4G or LTE services will enable telcos in Malaysia to offer speeds in excess of 100Mbps, which will benefit content providers like Media Prima, Star and Astro to offer a broad range of contents across several media platforms.
Media Prima Digital CEO Datuk Zainul Ariffin Mohammed Isa said: “The parking of all of the group’s digital media operations and assets under one umbrella is to collectively grow the group’s digital business and branding.”
With this move, Media Prima expects the contribution from its new media segment to double in the next 12 months.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011 (FY11), contribution from the new media division was only 1% of the group’s overall revenue of RM1.62 billion. For FY12, analysts expect the new media contribution to surpass the RM30 million mark, and should reach over RM40 million for FY13.
Zainul said at the launch yesterday that Media Prima saw the move as a long-term investment, as new media will be the dominant medium in the future.
Media Prima Digital currently has 2.54 million registered users for its Tonton video portal, an increase of more than 600,000 from 1.9 million in FY11.
Its websites and online portals have 5.9 million visitors, 4.5 million video views and 75 million page views every month.
Going forward, the company plans to monetise more of the content and resources from its available archive for Media Prima Digital’s platforms.
Media Prima’s group general manager of digital and integrated marketing Lam Swee Kim said there will be an increase in Tonton’s subscription-based and premium-paid content.
This will be another income contributor to Media Prima Digital, aside from advertising expenditure on which media companies usually rely.
In an earlier interview, Lam told The Edge Financial Daily that Tonton’s advertising rate is at a premium as it can specifically target the group of consumers.
Lam said the company’s constant challenge is to keep up with the emergence of new devices and technologies as Media Prima strives to make its platforms accessible to all devices.
Besides Tonton, Media Prima Digital’s online paltforms include entertainment and lifestyle portal Gua, NSTP’s newspapers and several e-commerce applications.
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Dec 13, 2012.