Good afternoon and welcome to the PCCW 2023 Annual Results Webcast. In attendance today we have Mrs. Susanna Hui, Acting Group Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Marco Wong, Head of Investor Relations. Over to Susanna, please.
Thank you. So, although in 2023 we face continuous challenges in terms of rising geopolitical tensions and, of course, a higher interest rate regime, we continue to focus ourselves on enhancing our position as a leading media and communications player in the region. Obviously, if you look at the slide here, we benefit from a very strong foundation of cash flow generated by our subsidiary HKT, which continue to show resilient and robust growth as we announced results yesterday. The main growth drivers being the rebound in terms of the roaming revenue, as well as the very robust growth in terms of the enterprise. Now, the other two pillars in our media group are also making significant headway in both of our regional markets as well as the local markets. It was indeed reflected in our operating financials here.
If you look at the slide here on the financial highlights, we can see from the tables at the bottom of the slide, that in terms of Viu, the streaming platform, we prioritize efforts on monetization and profitability, leading to a 22% revenue growth and a tripling of our EBITDA. Our ViuTV local team continue to produce quality content and expand its talent portfolio, as well as growing our presence regionally and extending into new entertainment formats, resulting in a 5% increase in revenue, with EBITDA doubling. Now, therefore, the total consolidated revenue of PCCW Group for the year 2023 was up by 1% to $4.6 billion. And if we are to exclude the handset sales at HKT, which was, of course, relatively softer, during the year 2023, the consolidated group service revenue still grew by 3% to $4.28 billion.
EBITDA was lifted by 4% to HKD 1.65 billion. On the back of this, the board has recommended a final dividend of 28.48 HKD per share, which, together with the interim dividend of 9.77 HKD per share, will amount to a full-year dividend of 38.25 HKD in total, representing an increase of around 1% year-on-year, with yield, based on recent share price, being 9.2% and a very stable partial ratio of the HKT dividends received by PCCW. Looking at the operating metrics now, despite the vigorous competition from both the local and regional players in the Southeast Asia market, Viu celebrated its success in terms of securing number two rank in the MAU, as well as the streaming minutes for the year, with monthly active users hitting 62.4 million in the last quarter of 2023.
We also continue to command higher CPM and sell- through rates relative to our industry peers by focusing on sponsorship packages and direct sales to strong international and regional clients, resulting in a very strong growth in terms of our advertising revenue, which rose by 15% during the year. In line with the industry's shift to focus on profitability, our key strategic focus during the year was on monetization. With our rich content library and riding on expanded telco and non-telco partnerships, such as device and retail and online partners, we continue with our paywall strategy to prioritize the pay subs subscribers' growth, which jumped by 10% to 13.4 million for the year.
Meanwhile, efforts were also made to introduce new pricing for our direct-to-consumers RPU in countries like Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc., to drive revenue growth, resulting in a surge of subscription revenue by 32% during the year. Corresponding rankings in pay subs and subscription revenue in Southeast Asia came in number two and number three, respectively. While we are conscious of reeling in content costs to achieve profitability in the near future, we continued with our two-pronged approach in terms of balancing Korean content with other local content relevant to the audience, and also in terms of acquired content versus co-produce, co-invest in Viu Originals in order to further enrich and diversify our content portfolio with the aim to cater the interests of the viewers across the region.
During 2023, we co-produced and released 27 Viu Originals spanning across not just Korean, but also Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Thai content, with some of them indeed winning regional awards as well. Turning to our domestic market, our ViuTV, Free TV, and also, MakerVille focus on producing high-quality content to captivate audiences, as well as expanding profile and exposure of our talent portfolio. Our TV broadcasting site maintained monthly customer reach of over 60% and sustained consistent primetime viewing times. Also notable was our digital engagement with the audience of a notably younger demographics, with digital platform members increasing 9% to hit 3 million in total.
As such, we were able to establish a competitive positioning of unique appeal to attract premium and tailored sponsorship from advertisers across diverse industries, including banking and investments, restaurants, healthcare, and so on, and maintain a very robust advertising top line despite a soft advertising spend momentum in the market. Meanwhile, MakerVille, our artist management and event business, continued to expand and groom our talent portfolio to expand our client base, while at the same time assisting our established artists to secure revenue streams by leveraging on partnership, as well as broadening into new entertainment formats, including theater, movies, and so on, as well as, obviously, expanding their exposure beyond Hong Kong. During 2023, on top of concerts of our in-house artists, we also expanded and diversified into overseas events and projects, covering outside independent artists for new revenue streams.
So, altogether, we were pleased to report a revenue growth of 5% during the year. With that, I will pass to Marco to go through the financials.
Thanks, Susanna. In terms of financial recap of each of the key businesses, I will just highlight HKT, which reported yesterday. Total revenue was up by 1% to $ 4.4 billion, while services revenue grew by 3% to HKD 4.02 billion, with key growth drivers being growth in mobile services revenue during due to the roaming recovery, as well as the broader 5G adoption, robust demand from enterprise customers for HKT's digital solutions, as well as the sustained demand for reliable fiber services. On the EBITDA side, TSS reported a 3% growth, while mobile registered higher growth of 4%, leading to 3% growth in overall EBITDA to $ 1.72 billion. The margin improved from 38%-39%, spurred by higher revenue, as well as cost optimization efforts across the group.
In terms of AFF, this registered a growth of 3% to HKD 743 million, contributed by higher EBITDA, disciplined Capex, as well as an improvement in working capital changes, which more than offset higher net finance costs and tax payments. PCCW holding a 52% stake in HKT will receive distributions totaling HKD 390 million for the full year 2023. On the media side, OTT delivered significant growth of 22% to HKD 314 million for the year. This was underpinned by an impressive 27% growth at Viu to HKD 262 million, reflecting our focus on monetization. This was led by a 30%-32% growth in Viu subscription revenue on the back of a 10% increase in paid subscriptions to 13.4 million. On the ad-supported tier, Viu successfully commanded higher CPM and sell-through rates, which resulted in advertising revenue exhibiting a 50% year-on-year growth.
This, combined with prudent cost management, led to OTT EBITDA tripling to HKD 76 million, with the margin increasing to 24% from 9%. On the Free TV side, we continued to deliver stable performance despite the sluggish TV advertising market, with the revenue increasing 5% to HKD 122 million. This reflected our resilient advertising business, which attracted top-tier advertisers and sponsorships due to the favorable Viu demographics, which is drawn by its high-quality and relevant content offerings. Revenue growth also showcased the successful expansion and diversification of our event and artist management, both in Hong Kong as well as regionally. Benefiting from the enhanced scale of the business, EBITDA almost doubled to HKD 24 million, with the margin increasing to 20% from 11%.
On the Opex side, we achieved a 6% savings, reducing from HKD 739 million to HKD 692 million, with the Opex to revenue ratio further improving to 15%. HKT contributed the majority of the savings, with a 12% improvement, from continued focus on operating efficiency as well as cost optimization initiatives. The media Opex was steady, even as the overall business continued to grow. In terms of Capex, the total Capex was reduced by 3% to HKD 298 million from HKD 308 million, with the ratio improving to 6.4% from 6.7%. This was largely due to the reduction in Capex at HKT, especially in the mobile segment, which dropped 8% year-on-year, following the completion of our territory-wide 5G network coverage rollout in 2022. Ongoing Capex will be focused on capacity upgrades, as well as indoor coverage enhancement.
On the TSS side, Capex also dropped 2%, with the majority of spending to support the growing demand for our unique fixed mobile solutions, including smart city solutions for enterprises. Capex for media was steady, and mainly for the enhancement of the Viu platform. Turning to the capital structure, in terms of debt maturity, the top chart shows the HKT debt profile, and as was discussed yesterday, there is no imminent refinancing need in 2024, while gross debt was stable at $5.74 billion. You will see at the bottom the PCCW debt profile, and as well, there is no debt coming due in 2024. Across the entire group, we have a balanced mix of short-term as well as longer maturity borrowings and bonds.
The current ratio of the group's fixed to floating rate debt was kept at approximately 50/50, with the average debt maturity around four years and the effective interest rate of 4.2%. Overall, the group's liquidity is healthy at $3 billion, consisting of $350 million in cash and $2.6 billion in undrawn bank credit, of which HKT accounted for about $1.85 billion, which comprised $210 million in cash and $1.6 billion of undrawn facilities. In terms of the ratios, gross as well as net debt to EBITDA were steady at 4.08 times and 3.87 times, respectively. With that, ends the presentation. Thank you.
Thank you. That was the end of the presentation. Thank you for your attendance today.