'Woo Young-woo Effect' KT Skylife, 3Q Operating Profit Up 17.7%... Approaching '1 Trillion Club' Milestone

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] KT Skylife announced its third-quarter earnings for 2022 on the 7th. Sales reached 268.1 billion KRW, up 50.3% (89.7 billion KRW) compared to the same period last year, and operating profit was 14.1 billion KRW, an increase of 17.7% (2.1 billion KRW) year-on-year.

EBITA, an indicator of cash generation capability, was 43.6 billion KRW, up 36.7% (11.7 billion KRW) compared to the same period last year.

Operating revenue from the platform segment of Skylife and HCN was 241.1 billion KRW, up 45.0% (74.9 billion KRW) year-on-year and 3.2% (7.5 billion KRW) quarter-on-quarter. The company explained that the growth across the entire business, including telecommunications such as mobile and internet, advertising, home shopping, as well as home appliances and transmission agency services, was the reason. Skylife completed the acquisition of HCN in September last year.

Operating revenue from the content segment of Skylife TV was 27.0 billion KRW, achieving the highest quarterly performance since its founding with a 122.4% (14.9 billion KRW) increase year-on-year and a 30.8% (6.4 billion KRW) increase quarter-on-quarter. Advertising revenue grew sharply due to the ‘Woo Young-woo’ effect and increased recognition of the ENA channel, recording a quarterly high of 21.4 billion KRW (separate basis).

The net increase in skyTPS subscribers was also maintained. Combining Skylife satellite broadcasting and HCN cable broadcasting, there was a net increase of 12,000 subscribers, 39,000 mobile subscribers, and 22,000 sky internet subscribers, totaling a net increase of 73,000 subscribers, continuing subscriber growth. In particular, mobile subscribers have achieved rapid growth, reaching 240,000 retained subscribers two years after its launch in October 2020. HCN subscribers are also generating synergy as sales of sky mobile and sky internet steadily rise.

Content sales recorded a quarterly high of 30.3 billion KRW (separate basis). From the second half of this year, the company is expanding investment in content by actively scheduling original dramas, and the viewership ratings of the four ENA affiliated channels are also rising together. In particular, the ENA channel has rapidly grown, ranking 6th in the channel viewership ratings for July (individual 2049 channel viewership ranking).

Yang Chun-sik, Head of Management Services at KT Skylife, said, “With consolidated sales of 763.1 billion KRW through the third quarter of this year, we are one step closer to joining the 1 trillion KRW annual sales club. We will increase net subscriber growth of TPS products, expand synergy with HCN, and continue aggressive investment in original content through Skylife TV.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.