Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to PCCW 2023 Interim Results Announcement. Presenting today are Ms. Susanna Hui, Acting Group Managing Director and Group Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Marco Wong, Head of Investor Relations. Over to Susanna, please.
Thank you. Well supported by HKT with its resilient and diversified portfolio, which produces very stable cash flow for PCCW. The media business inside PCCW, both local and regional, continue to drive deeper collaboration and integration across the different units in the ecosystem for enhancing our market position. If you look at our OTT business, Viu continue to be one of the top leading video streaming platforms in Southeast Asia, achieving top-line growth for the period of around 30% year-on-year. Operating metrics continue to be very strong in the Southeast Asia market. On the subscriber side, we ranked number one in terms of the subscriber net adds during the first half, and ranked number two by total number of paid subscribers, commanding a market share of 18% in the region.
We also ranked number two in terms of MAUs and total streaming minutes, the latter position of which has been consistently won for 13 consecutive quarters. While we are operating a dual subscription and advertising-based model, our current strategy is now towards quality customer acquisition and retention, as well as, of course, better monetization, hence reflecting in our very strong growth of paid subscribers in the first half. We see paid subscribers surge by 21% year-on-year to reach 11 million, on the back of new partnerships with telcos, as well as online platforms, including Astro in Malaysia and Shoprite in South Africa. While our MAUs also grew by 8% year-on-year to reach 65.5 million, with notable expansion in Indonesia and South Africa.
Regarding our content strategy, we continue to invest in exclusive slates of Viu Originals content, with diverse genres to cater for different audiences between paywall and freewall. With optimizing monetization in mind, we are striking a good balance of both Korean and localized content, which obviously command different cost metrics. If we look at H1, a total of 4 Korean and six localized Viu Originals were launched. Our flagship Korean Viu Original, Taxi Driver 2, remained at top spot across 16 of our markets for 9 consecutive weeks. Reflecting its wide popularity, we also licensed syndication rights to third-party platforms in Southeast Asia, as well as in Taiwan. Our local Viu Originals also proved to be very popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, remaining in the top 10 position for several consecutive weeks.
To tap the post-pandemic pent-up demand for live experiences and events, we kickstart a series of Viu Screen Days, which are live events where fans can meet with stars from successful shows. While these events are profitable on their own, generating additional revenue for Viu through ticketed events, advertisement, sponsorship, and endorsements, more importantly, these events have the impact of strengthening audience loyalty on the Viu brand. The first event was launched in March this year, following the success of Taxi Driver 2, and have more planned for the rest of the year to come. To provide further catalyst for Viu expansion, we recently completed the formation of a strategic partnership with CANAL+. CANAL+ has committed to invest up to $300 million in total into, into Viu, with $200 million already being injected.
The partnership is an affirmation of the leading platform that we have built in the region. With the combined strengths of PCCW and CANAL+, and the synergies in terms of content, production, and distribution, we believe that the full potential of the Viu business will be unleashed. Turning to our free TV business, we noticed that the total advertising spend in Hong Kong as a whole increased in the first half, obviously in line with the economic recovery in the city. Ad spend on TV actually shrank by 6% for the period, whereas digital ad spend increased by 18%. For our ViuTV, stable advertising revenue was recorded during the period, with top spend coming from F&B and also beauty segments. In the meantime, we prioritize our digital engagement with viewers.
Our digital platform recorded a 14% year-on-year increase, and reached now over 3 million in terms of registered members. In H1, we broadcast a number of all-time favorites, such as the King Maker V, and also 41st Hong Kong Film Awards. Looking into H2, we have a robust content pipeline, with the 3rd season of our popular game show, Beyond Game, as well as several drama with very strong casts, including the Hong Kong remake of the popular Korean drama, Business Proposal, using our own artists as cast. We are very optimistic to be able to capture higher revenue growth in H2. Turning to our content production and our artist management business, MakerVille continues expanding our content portfolio in order to drive growth and exposure in Hong Kong, and indeed internationally.
On top of acting as a content house for ViuTV, in the first half, MakerVille also organized concerts, including the Chill Club concert and various other concerts, which are right now being in place. We also participated in movie investment. Recent one include the critically acclaimed Mad Fate, features as the opening film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Our artist management also reported very stable revenue growth in the first six months of the year. From talent cast in various movies, they're performing in local and overseas music festivals, as well as various sponsorships and commercials. Finally, our dividend.
In line with the overall results and in line with the dividend growth of HKT, the board has earlier today declared an interim dividend of 9.77 Hong Kong cents per share, representing 2.2% increase over last year. With that, I will pass to Marco for the financial section. Marco?
Thanks, Anna. We're pleased to report that PCCW delivered a solid financial performance with its portfolio of leading media and telecom businesses. Services revenue grew 2% from $1.98 billion to $2.0 billion, $2.01 billion, while total revenue went up by 1% to $2.16 billion, despite softer mobile product sales due to cautious market sentiment and a longer replacement cycle. EBITDA also lifted by 2% from $706 million to $722 million. As you can see in the tables at the bottom, all our businesses, comprising HKT, OTT, and free TV, exhibited growth in both revenue and EBITDA. Especially in OTT, revenue was up 24% year-on-year, and EBITDA up more than ninefold from the same period last year.
As we reported yesterday, HKT total revenue was up 2%, of which services revenue grew 3%, contributed by accelerated growth in mobile services revenue, reflecting the gradual recovery in roaming revenue, as well as further 5G adoption. Including robust demand in enterprise segment, with local data revenue growing 10% and further broadband revenue growth of 2%. As you see on the right, both TSS and mobile reported 3% EBITDA growth. As a result, HKT EBITDA also rose 3% to $770 million, with the EBITDA margin improving to 37%. AFF grew by 2.2% to $311 million due to the high EBITDA, as just mentioned, as well as disciplined spending on CapEx, which more than offset the high net finance costs as interest rates progressively increased during the period.
PCCW, with its holding 52.3% stake in HKT, we will receive a distribution of $163 million in the first half. Looking at the media businesses, OTT continued to deliver strong growth, with revenue increasing 24% to US $124 million in the first half, underpinned by an impressive 30% year-on-year growth in Viu to US $105 million, reflecting the appeal of its Viu original content, as well as its paywall strategy and new distribution partnerships, which led to 21% growth in Viu paid subscriptions to 11 million, and MAUs expanding 8% to 65.5 million, with notable growth in Indonesia and South Africa. On the back of this enlarged revenue base, OTT EBITDA was up more than ninefold year-on-year to US $21 million, demonstrating the operating leverage inherent within the business.
The strength of the Viu business was reinforced in the strategic partnership that we recently announced with CANAL+ in June. With an aggregate investment of $300 million and various strategic collaboration initiatives, including premium content production as well as further user experience improvement, this will accelerate Viu's growth and expand its global market reach. On the free TV side, ViuTV continued to deliver steady performance, with revenue up by 1% to $50 million, reflecting stable advertising revenue and increased artist management revenue from the growing involvement of our talent in films, music, and endorsement opportunities during the period. With more advertising shifting to digital, we focused on strengthening our engagement on that platform, which led to a 14% increase in registered digital members to 3 million.
ViuTV's EBITDA expanded by 5% to $1 million on the back of savings in publicity and promotion expenses. On the cost side, we achieved 5% savings in total overall OpEx, driving the cost base down from $395 millio- to $375 million, with the OpEx to revenue ratio improving from 18% to 17%. Savings predominantly came from HKT, which achieved 4% year-on-year OpEg savings, arising from continued business process digitalization, optimizing digital and retail sales channels, as well as efficiency gains from mobile network operations. On the CapEx side, total CapEx was low by 5% to $146 million, while the CapEx to revenue ratio improved to 6.8% from 7.2%.
The savings primarily came from the reduction in CapEx at HKT, especially in the mobile segment, which dropped 10% year-on-year following the completion of our territory-wide 5G network coverage rollout. TSS CapEx also dropped, with the majority of spending now to support the growing demand for integrated fixed mobile solutions. On the media side, CapEx decreased slightly, with the spending mainly for streaming platform enhancement. In terms of the capital structure, the top chart, as you see, shows the HKT debt profile. As we mentioned in yesterday's announcement, there is no major financing required until 2025. On the bottom chart, you will see the PCCW debt profile, and similarly, there is no imminent debt due for PCCW.
Across the group, we have a balanced mix of bank borrowings and longer maturity bonds, with the ratio at approximately 50/50, which helps insulate us from further interest rate increases. Average debt maturity is around 4 years, while the effective interest rate was 3.9%. In terms of liquidity, the group's liquidity is healthy, at $3 billion, comprising $330 million in cash and $2.7 billion in undrawn bank credit, of which HKT accounted for about $1.6 billion. Both HKT and PCCW gross debt increased slightly to $5.78 billion and $831 million, respectively, to meet seasonal working capital needs.
Gross debt to EBITDA improved to 4.12 times, while net debt to EBITDA also slightly improved to 3.92 times as compared to the same period last year.
That's the end of the analyst briefing. Thank you very much.