Malaysian platform Astro this evening reported recovery all round for the three months to end October, saying advertising was up 58% and revenue increased 2% to RM1.11 billion/US$272 million compared to the previous three months (May-July 2020).

Pay-per-view buys for the first nine months of this year soared 84% compared to last year, driven by the record-breaking “Mael Totey”, which earned more than RM7 million/US$1.7 million to make it the highest grossing film ever on Astro First.

Customers streamed 134 million on-demand videos in the first nine months of the year, a 161% increase year on year. Mobile platform Astro Go’s monthly users rose 78% year on year to 1.7 million.

Astro said its viewership share for the quarter grew to 73%. Local/vernacular titles topped ratings, led by “Gegar Vaganza” with 3 million viewers, “Big Stage” with 2.4 million and “The Masked Singer” with 1.9 million. Drama series “Bidadari Kiriman Tuhan” had 1.9 viewers and “Perempuan Tanpa Dosa” 1.6 million.

Signature shows in December are Astro originals “Kampong Pisang Bersiri-siri” and “Konsert Hora Horey”.

Astro reported an 8% EBITDA increase to RM402 million/US$99 million for the latest quarter. eCommerce platform Go Shop revenue was up 19% to RM111 million/US$27 million for the quarter compared to the same three months last year. TV average revenue per user (arpu) was stable at RM97.60/US$24.