"Prospects for Achieving Annual Consolidated Sales of 1 Trillion Won"
Qualitative Growth in Subscribers... Positive Impact on Future Profitability
Amateur 'AI Sports' Platform Business Expansion
KT Skylife's standalone operating profit for the third quarter of this year recorded 10.7 billion KRW, a 27% increase compared to the same period last year.
On the 6th, KT Skylife announced its Q3 2024 earnings, stating, "With consolidated sales reaching 765.9 billion KRW by the third quarter, maintaining annual sales of 1 trillion KRW is achievable."
Standalone operating revenue for Q3 was 177.3 billion KRW, similar to 178.6 billion KRW in the same period last year, while operating profit rose 27% to 10.7 billion KRW from 8.4 billion KRW. EBITDA, an indicator of cash generation capability, stood at a solid 22.6 billion KRW.
Telecommunication service sales grew due to net increases in internet and mobile subscribers, but TV service sales declined. Operating profit increased reflecting the smoothing effect of the Broadcasting Development Fund (costs evenly allocated throughout the year).
On a consolidated basis (Skylife + HCN + SkylifeTV), operating revenue was 256.9 billion KRW, operating profit 1.8 billion KRW, and EBITDA 45.7 billion KRW.
Total subscribers numbered 5.78 million, a 0.7% decrease compared to 5.82 million in the same period last year. The company stated, "Although the scale of new subscribers has shrunk due to sales commission optimization and profitability-focused subscriber recruitment, qualitative improvement of subscribers is expected to positively impact future profitability."
The ENA channel maintained a top 10 ranking with a quarterly viewership rating of 9th place (2049 demographic in the metropolitan area). This is the same ranking as in Q3 2022 when the drama Strange Lawyer Woo Young-woo aired. Based on this, SkylifeTV recorded a 6.2% share of the paid broadcasting advertising market, marking the highest level since its founding.
In Q3 this year, the drama Your Honor starring Son Hyun-joo and Kim Myung-min (viewership rating 0.92%) and the flagship variety show I am Solo Season 22 (viewership rating 1.03%) received strong viewer support. In Q4, cooking variety show Baek Jong-won's Les Mis?rables featuring Baek Jong-won and the drama Namib starring Go Hyun-jung and Ryeo Woon are highly anticipated.
In July, Skylife made a strategic investment in Hogak, entering the amateur "AI Sports" platform business. AI Sports is a platform business that automatically produces content using AI unmanned cameras and distributes it via an application-based platform.
Skylife plans to nurture its AI online video service (OTT) new business by integrating its broadcasting and telecommunications expertise as a new growth engine. It is preparing for service commercialization in the first half of next year by building solutions for local governments and school sports facilities and launching bundled products with sky internet.
Jo Il, CFO of KT Skylife, said, "Internet and mobile subscribers continue to increase steadily, and with the strong viewership of the ENA channel, SkylifeTV's advertising market share has reached its highest level. We will enhance shareholder value by improving profitability through expanding TPS product subscribers and commercializing AI Sports."
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