Asian Pay Television Trust Q1 revenue, earnings slip

ASIAN Pay Television Trust on Tuesday reported a 5.4 per cent drop in operating earnings (Ebitda) to S$46 million for its first quarter ended March 31, 2016. Total revenue also fell 5.4 per cent to S$77.8 million.

The trust said that revenue fell due to the continued weakness in the Taiwanese economy, marginally lower basic cable TV rates in one of its units Taiwan Broadband Communications group's five franchise areas, and the non-recurrence of revenue generated in 2015.

The latter was a result of one-off items, including higher advertising airtime sales generated in the lead-up to the presidential and legislative yuan election.

The board has declared an ordinary distribution of 1.625 cents per unit for the quarter.

The books closure date will be on June 17; the distribution will be paid on June 24.