According to The Malaysian Reserve (TMR), revenue for the period dipped 4% year-on-year to RM306.2 million from RM318.6 million a year ago.
The media giant attributed its losses to a decline in advertising income and exceptional items amounting to RM302.7 million.
It said without the second factor, its net loss would have been RM82 million.
In the second quarter ended June 30, Media Prima had posted a pre-tax loss of RM135.6 million against a pre-tax profit of RM29.84 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue eased to RM328.77 million from RM349.55 million previously due to changes in consumer behaviour and digital disruptions which impacted the media industry as a whole.
On its fourth quarter losses, Media Prima, which runs TV and radio stations and publishes various newspapers, said costs related to impairments and downsizing of its workforce had contributed to the decline.
TMR reported that total net loss for the financial year 2017 grew to RM650.6 million against RM59.2 million in FY16.
Turnover meanwhile dropped 7% to RM1.2 billion from RM1.3 billion previously.
Last August, Media Prima said it was exploring further cost saving initiatives given the decline in group revenue.
Among the initiatives cited were plans to trim the workforce in order to rationalise the group’s cost structure.
Earlier this year, Hong Leong IB Research said the print media business was expected to be hard hit by prolonged weak advertisement expenditure this year.
AmInvestment Bank Research meanwhile said the sector’s prospects in 2018 were tepid as digitalisation initiatives undertaken by the media companies remained ineffectual in cushioning the decline in adex rates.
Print media business model hard hit in digital age, says research house