Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s profits rose in the last financial year despite the soft advertising market thanks to expansion in subscriber base.

Its net profit rose 16 percent to $140.3 million (RM 519.4 million) for the financial year ended Jan 31, 2015 on 9 percent higher revenue of $1.41 billion (RM 5.23 billion).

The increase in revenue was contributed by the 7 percent rise in TV and radio subscription revenue. Overall revenue for radio rose 5.9 percent to $70.6 million (RM 261.3 million).

In FY15, Astro launched 12 new channels, raising its total channels to 184, of which 50 are in high definition.

According to Astro CEO Datuk Rohana Rozhan, its customer base grew by 547,000 to 4.4 million, representing 63 percent penetration of total Malaysian TV households as against 56 percent in the previous year.

“In a soft advertising market, we grew our TV and radio adex shares to sustain our total advertising income at $159 million (RM 589 million) in FY15,” Rozhan said.