KUALA LUMPUR: Asian Broadcasting Network (M) Sdn Bhd’s (ABN) television broadcast licence remains intact despite the shutdown of its news division, according to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), which regulates the communications and multimedia industry.
The shutdown of ABN’s news division last Monday had raised concerns over whether the company would be able to continue its TV broadcast services as it was believed the licence is conditional upon it having a news department, producing local content.
MCMC told The Edge Financial Daily that ABN has an existing content application service provider individual licence (CASP [l]) to undertake subscription broadcasting services which is valid from Aug 11, 2011, to Aug 10, 2016.
“The setting up of a news department is not a prerequisite for such licences,” said MCMC.
The regulator explained that a CASP (I) licence holder generally can produce or provide news, or provide news which it can source from any other party (usually another licence holder) via a commercial agreement.
ABN’s digital cable TV broadcast licence was secured in 2011 via Nilamas Corp Bhd — as ABN was known then — from MCMC.
The licence was only activated in 2013 when the pay-TV service was launched.
To recap, The Edge Financial Daily reported yesterday that ABN had closed down its news division last Monday, taking ABN News off the air and its news portals off the Internet. The company has also closed its studio unit, which supported the news broadcast.
Without the news division, the company had to terminate the employment of more than 60 staff members.
According to the employment termination letter sighted by The Edge Financial Daily, ABN’s justification for the retrenchment of its staff was a restructuring of the company’s operations.
“Following this, a few departments will cease operations, effective April 30, 2015,” the letter read.
The staff were served a month’s notice by the management on April 1, 2015. Their April salary will be paid via cheques.
ABN is deep in debt, owing Bank Pembangunan (M) Bhd (held by the Minister of Finance Inc and the Federal Lands Commissioner) some RM450 million and Malayan Banking Bhd RM15 million since 2012.
The loans were secured to help the company fund its RM2 billion capital expenditure.
According to ABN’s financial statement filed with the Companies Commission of Malaysia, the company has not recorded any revenue since 2009.
For its financial year 2013 (FY13), the company showed accumulated losses of RM36.2 million, including losses of RM30.7 million for the year.
It also recorded net loss of RM4.65 million and RM86.68 million for FY12 and FY11 respectively.
Non-current and current assets stood at RM189.89 million and RM22.79 million respectively while its non-current and current liabilities were RM102 million and RM38.82 million in FY13.
With total debts of RM140.9 million, it had a gearing of 1.97 times as at June 30, 2013.
ABN’s FY14 financial statements were not available from searches with the CCM, indicating that it has yet to file them.
On top of ABN’s debt due to the banks, an ex-ABN employee who wish to stay anonymous said that the company has not paid for content from many networks it had subscribed to.
This begs not only the question of how ABN will service its debts but also of how it will keep its content providers.
After it was formed in 2011, the station had targeted a subscriber base of 100,000 by the end of 2014.
ABN’s digital cable TV service, marketed as ABNxcess, was launched on June 8, 2013, and had billed itself as the country’s first digital cable network.
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 8, 2015.