KUCHING: The digital trend continues to reshape the media industry, the research arm of Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga Research) observes, while also noting that the media sector’s prospect remains challenging amid the soft advertising expenditure (adex) outlook.
According to Kenanga Research, advertisers continue to switch from traditional media type such as TV and print, given the growing penetration rate in both broadband and mobile cellular segments.
“Overall, we gathered that players ex-Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd are garnering and streamlining their efforts to ride the digital trend, given the continual challenging outlook,” the research arm said.
“With Star Media Group Bhd introducing its digital eco-system, involving the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to capture and target audience needs according to individual consumption habits, potentially garnering better cross-selling opportunities based on its many existing platforms such as Star Online, Star Property and Dimsum.
“Meanwhile, Media Chinese International Limited is seeing traction in its one-stop solutions to advertisers, which includes content creation, editing services and talents for promotional materials.”
In comparison, Kenanga Research believed Media Prima Bhd remained the leader in terms of digital initiatives among the three ex-Astro players, given its Odyssey Transformation strategy as the group has already acquired multiple digital brands while brewing its own.
“Overall, we commend the media players in embracing the digitalisation process, while leveraging on key expertise, which includes journalism and content creation. However, we believe the bottom has yet to be seen given that traditional media still forms the lion’s share of the group’s contribution.”
As traditional adex still outweighs digital-adex, the research arm believed that players under its coverage might not see significant earnings improvement from the digital space despite their strategy and investment to boost on-line presence.
“On the flipside, this could be a double whammy given the diminishing relevance of traditional adex to advertisers.”