Astro Malaysia launches VoD service

Astro Malaysia Holdings launches a video-on-demand service, ‘On Demand (OD)’. The service can be accessed on internet connected personal video recorder and on Astro-on-the-go. Through this service, Astro targets 500,000 connected PVRs by year end from its current 181,000 connected boxes. It also aims to increase total Astro-on-the-go downloads from 1.8 million currently to reach 2.5 million by year end, and more importantly increasing viewership of active users from 140 minutes weekly to more than 180 minutes by year-end.

OD allows users to personalise TV viewing – from the content selection to how and when they want to watch shows. Its content offering includes latest and biggest box office movies and complete seasons of TV series, said the firm in a press note.

“Malaysians are sophisticated consumers, increasingly online and connected, increasingly plugged into the digital grid, increasingly watching content outside the home, online and offline. Today we see a rising demand for Video on Demand services. OD is our new complementary way of consuming content, at home or on the go,” said Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro Malaysia.

The OD offers three options:

OD Free:  Users who are connected to PVRs on home Wi-Fi will be able to enjoy content for free. It provides latest episodes and season of popular TV series like Empire, Scandal, The Walking Dead, Heroes Reborn, Quantico, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Game of Thrones, The Blacklist, The Voice and many others – all on the same day as the US premiere. Also catch up on the latest episodes of local content like Akademi Fantasia, Classic Golden Melody etc.

OD Plus: This option is subscription based and it is priced at MYR15.90 per month. Astro provides on demand access to a premium local and international movies, blockbusters, complete box-sets of TV series and kids content. It offers all episodes of your various series such as Grey’s Anatomy, The Flash, Arrow, Gotham, How To Get Away With Murder, Agent Carter, Big Bang Theory and Hollywood blockbusters like the Harry Potter complete collection and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

OD Store: This is transaction based VoD, customers can pick and pay for the latest cinema releases – from Hollywood to local and Asian blockbusters across a wide range of vernacular and international languages, including Malay, Chinese and Indian. Fast & Furious 7, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Inside Out as well as Kapsul, Bravo 5, Jejak Warriors, Heart Attack and The Killer are all available on OD Store.

Astro provides free access to OD Plus service for three months to those who sign up before 31 January, 2016 in order to captivate customers.

Astro posts a revenue of MYR2.7bn in H1 FY2016

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) posted a consolidated revenue of MYR2.7 billion for the first six months of the financial year ending 31 January, 2016, with a growth rate of 4% year-on-year. The firm’s advertising income grew by 5% to MYR305mn.

Astro added over 426,000 net TV customers in H1 FY2016; with the help of its free package, Njoi which contributed for 58% y-o-y raise. With this subscriber growth, Astro claims that it penetrated 65% of Malaysian TV households in H1 FY2016 from 60% in H1 FY2015. At the end of January 2015, there were over 1.6 million Astro on the Go downloads, increase by 31% y-o-y.

“Amidst a challenging operating environment coupled with soft consumer sentiment, the Group continues to deliver on its growth strategies to generate shareholder value creation. On that note, the Board is pleased to declare a second interim dividend of 2.75 sen per share, 22% higher compared to the same period last year,” said Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro.

“We are driving take up of connected boxes and of Astro on the Go from 181k now to 500k by year end. At the same time, we are ensuring our content proposition is second to none. As for our international content, we are ensuring that linear viewing is supplemented by strong on-demand proposition of same day as global premieres, live, social and box sets to cater for our customers viewing trends,” said Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro.

Astro Malaysia eyes rural pay-TV market

Astro Malaysia Holdings aggressively targets rural pay-TV market to achieve its goal of 85% penetration in Malaysia over the next three to five years. Astro plans to woo rural masses with slashed subscription tariffs, reported Bloomberg.

The company provides some free basic channels for a starting fee with the option to buy additional programmes selectively instead of charging monthly.

Reduction in subscription prices helped Astro to increase its customers from 500,000 in 2014 to 4.5 million, said the company.

Referring to the challenges in the market, the company says low spending habits, fluctuating currency and 6% increase in goods and services tax has a greater impact. Yet Astro Malaysia is optimistic about its growth.

Broadcasters are forced to spend more foreign exchange while buying content. “About 70& of our total content costs are dollar-denominated,” said Rohana Rozhan, CEO of Astro Malaysia to the media firm. “The Malaysian currency has lost about 8% against the dollar this year as Asian currencies come under pressure from the prospect of higher US interest rates. Every 10 sen depreciation in the ringgit will increase Astro’s costs by MYR35 million (USD9.2 million),” added Rohana.

Astro selects Thomson for DTH, IPTV and OTT expansion

Astro Selects Thomson Video Networks Video Processing Solutions to Drive New Multi-Screen Unified Compression Platform

• State-of-the-Art Platform for DTH, IPTV, and OTT Delivery Powered by Thomson Video Networks

RENNES, France — Southeast Asia’s largest pay-TV operator, Astro, has chosen a suite of Thomson Video Networks encoding and video processing solutions to drive its new Multi-screen Unified Compression System (MUCS), a compression platform that will enable Astro to deliver additional channels for its future business expansion. Thomson Video Networks’ solutions deployed for MUCS include the award-winning ViBE™ EM4000 premium HD/SD broadcast encoder, NetProcessor multiplexer/video processor, Amethyst III high-density redundancy switch, and XMS network management system. The Thomson Video Networks solutions enable a native multi-screen platform that provides an easy-to-manage capability for Astro to deliver content via DTH (VBR MPEG-2 and H.264), IPTV (CBR H.264), and OTT.

“We chose the Thomson Video Networks solutions after a very comprehensive and intensive tender process in which we evaluated a number of compression technology vendors. The Thomson solutions were an ideal match to our requirements, especially with regard to the ability to deliver content on multiple platforms,” said Poh Kee Seng, vice president of platform technology, Astro.

With a base of more than 4.3 million residential customers representing approximately 62 percent of Malaysian TV households, Astro offers more than 184 TV channels — including 48 HD channels — delivered via DTH satellite TV, IPTV, and OTT platforms. Over the past six years, Astro has deployed 18 DTH transponders with Thomson Video Networks solutions and now uses the NetProcessor multiplexer/video processor for all IPTV streaming services. Also, with the new solutions installed in Astro’s main DTH broadcast center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the MUCS platform extends an existing Thomson Video Networks deployment for the OTT service — Astro on the Go — that includes the industry-leading ViBE VS7000 multi-screen and HEVC video system.

“Through its partnership with Thomson Video Networks, Astro Malaysia is truly at the forefront of leveraging the industry’s most advanced compression technologies to deliver advanced pay-TV services through DTH, IPTV and OTT resources,” said Tony Berthaud, vice president, Asia-Pacific sales and services, Thomson Video Networks. “We look forward to working with Astro as it continues to provide leading-edge services to its customers.”

Astro, Azteca, Global Station sign pact

Malaysian pay-TV provider, Astro; Spanish-language programmer, Azteca; and Malaysian drama producer, Global Station have joined hands to re-produce Azteca telenovela formats in Malaysian version.

“With Astro’s consumer and marketing know-how, Global’s production expertise and Azteca’s distribution strengths we are confident that these adapted telenovelas will meet the increasing demand for localised content from the multicultural and diverse people of this region, as well as be able to travel beyond Malaysia to delight audiences around the world,” said Agnes Rozario, VP of Astro’s content group.

As per the deal, Azteca will manage the international distribution of the produced telenovelas. Astro will handle marketing activities and Global Station will co-produce. Astro had earlier partnered with Azteca and Global Station for various content.

Astro to offer home shopping to 3.8 mil. TV homes

Astro Malaysia has signed an agreement with South Korea’s GS Home Shopping Inc to launch a home shopping business on both Astro’s free NJOI channels and Astro pay-TV subscription service without further investment required in set-top-boxes or broadcast infrastructure.

“Astro’s customer base of 3.8 million television homes in Malaysia provides a retail reach of some 17 million consumers, unmatched by any physical retail chain stores,” the company said in a statement.

GSHS, is one of the leading home shopping operators in Asia – with presence in South Korea, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, India and Turkey. Astro said the home shopping service would also be available on other platforms including the Internet and mobile phones.

Astro B.yond has 2.7 million subscribers

Malaysia’s top integrated consumer media entertainment group Astro, has announced that it has 2.7 million subscribers for its Astro B.yond platform. That’s nearly 80% of all its pay TV subscribers have migrated to the B.yond platform.

Astro’s chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan said, “This is our peak reinvestment year as we aim to not only grow our customer base but to swap the majority of our tenured customers onto the Astro B.yond platform. The Astro B.yond platform sets the stage for us to launch value added products and services, as well as to deliver content via over-the-top and Internet Protocol. The strong take up of these products and services have gained traction and will underpin sustainable ARPU (average revenue per user) growth.”

Astro’s pay TV subscriber base is now 3.78 million subscribers with an increase of 43,000 new subscribers. In case of Astro’s own subscription-free satellite TV service, NJOI which was launched in 2012, the subscriber base grew by 68,000 to a total of 382,000. Astro now has a reach to about 55% of all Malaysian households.

Astro chooses Pace for HD PVR

Malaysia´s digital satellite operator Astro has chosen to use the technologies provided by Pace, a technology developer for pay TV and broadband services, to supply the next generation of its HD PVR. This would the first time in its history that Pace would be developing this HD PVR.

Astro has recently added 43,000 subscribers bringing its total numbers 3.36 million subscribers for the second quarter ending in July. It has also announced that it will be aggressively courting its subscribers to move towards its HD platform. The next generation HD PVR which will be rolled out officially starting next month, will feature upgraded technologies such as dual-band concurrent Wi-Fi solution and comes with 1GM RAM as well as an internal hard drive.

Astro Spokesperson Kong Futt Fong, SVP Strategic Contracts, said,  “Pace´s new HD PVR allows us to improve the customer experience and provide our customers with the very latest technologies and services.” Astro has also been trying to boost its IPTV offerings to its subscribers as it has recently signed a new content deal with IPTV service, Hypp TV.

3.67 mill subscribers for Astro

Malaysia´s digital satellite operator Astro has announced that its pay TV subscriber base grown by 43,000 bringing it to a total 3.36 million subscribers for the second quarter ending on July 2013. The subscribers for Njoi, which is Malaysia´s first subscription-free satellite TV service, has increased by 50,000 to 314,000 subscribers. The operator now has 3.67 million subscribers in total.

The number of subscribers opting for Astro´s B.yond service also increased substantially by 290,000. The numbers show that Astro currently has a reach to 54% of all Malaysian households.  Those opting for Astro´s B.yond now account for 74% of Astro´s total subscriber base.

Astro chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan has noted that this would be a peak investment year for Astro as it tries to move more of its subscriber base towards its HD platform. Datuk Rohana Rozhan said, “For every swap out or a new customer migrating to its HD platform, it costs Astro USD 183 of which USD 107 is for the hardware (decoder and satellite dish), while the remaining amount involves the installation, sales and marketing costs.”