Digital Disruption, Legacy Cost Commitments and Financial Resilience: Comparative Evidence from Astro and Media Prima

Established media firms can expand their digital presence while remaining financially vulnerable because revenue migration and resource adjustment do not necessarily occur at the same rate. This paper examines how revenue exposure and inherited cost commitments help explain the different financial paths of Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad and Media Prima Berhad. The study uses a comparative longitudinal case design and draws on audited financial statements, annual and integrated reports, Bursa Malaysia announcements and official corporate disclosures covering 2015 to 2025. Financial trends in revenue, profit attributable to owners and net margin are analysed alongside directed coding of disclosed commitments, impairments, restructuring actions and digital initiatives. The findings show that both companies expanded digital activities, but their financial trajectories differed. Astro experienced a prolonged decline in revenue and profit while material programme and financing commitments remained. Media Prima recognised substantial impairment and restructuring losses before returning to profitability at a smaller revenue base. The comparison identifies a timing mechanism in which financial pressure intensifies when legacy contribution falls before committed resources are adjusted and before new activities generate sufficient replacement contribution. The paper connects asymmetric cost behaviour with organisational resilience by operationalising legacy cost adaptability through traceable indicators. The two-case, document-based design supports analytical rather than statistical generalisation; it does not estimate cost stickiness or causal effects, and differences in reporting periods and inconsistent platform-level disclosure limit direct comparison. Within these boundaries, the study shows why digital reach should be evaluated together with resource-adjustment timing and the contribution earned by new activities.

Digital disruption, Legacy cost commitments, financial resilience, Management accounting, Media incumbents

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