Media giant Naspers reported a profit for the year ended March 31, 2009 as it added pay-tv subscribers, it said on Tuesday.

"Our pay-tv businesses proved resilient. When people experience economic pressure, they spend more time at home and pay-tv is an affordable form of entertainment," Naspers said.

It added that the company had invested substantially to grow, and that the gross subscriber base had improved.

Naspers reported that revenues were up by 30 percent to R26.7-billion for the past financial year, while core headline earnings grew nine percent to R4.4-billion.

Naspers said the past 12 months had evidenced a global economic downturn.

However, "each business in the group played the field as it found it and each adapted as fast as possible to these new conditions," the company said.

"Overall, the group's growth was satisfactory," it said.

Naspers added that emerging markets were at the centre of its strategy.

"In the aggregate and at consumer level, they were under pressure, but fared better than developed economies."

The company said its recent internet acquisitions — Allegro, Ricardo and Gadu-Gadu — performed steadily.

Its associates, Tencent in China and mail.ru in Russia, expanded.

Naspers' technology business, Irdeto, was more impacted by the economy than its consumer-facing units, it said.

Print circulations in South Africa and China held up, but advertising revenues were stagnant, Naspers noted.

In Brazil, however, media company Abril had a good year, it said.

"Looking ahead, we mostly have resilient businesses in economies that are on average doing better than the developed world.

"Competition in pay TV, regulation and consumer spending levels remain concerns," it added.

The company said it would continue its growth strategy.

"Rigorous evaluation processes are applied when new investments are considered," Naspers said.

It added that its balance sheet was "strong".


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