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All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator, doing business as Astro, is a Malaysian
satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
and
IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
provider. It operates in Malaysia and
Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...
and operates from the All Asia Broadcast Centre (AABC) in
Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...
and MEASAT in
Cyberjaya Cyberjaya (a portmanteau of ''cyber'' and ''Putrajaya'') is a city with a science park as the core that forms a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia. It is located in Sepang District, Selangor. Cyberjaya is adjacent to, and deve ...
. In 2016, the company was recorded as achieving 71% household penetration in Malaysia. It was granted an exclusive license as the sole pay-television provider by the Malaysian federal government until 2017. Astro is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad and is operated by MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn. Bhd. Astro launched the high-definition platform
Astro B.yond Astro B.yond is a Malaysian first high-definition television (HDTV) service from Astro. Launched by Astro on 11 December 2009. The roll out of these services is estimated to cost some RM200 million, including marketing and operating costs of appro ...
in 2009 and the IPTV platform
Astro IPTV Astro IPTV is an Internet Protocol Television service by the Malaysian satellite television provider, Astro. Launched on 20 April 2011 as Astro B.yond IPTV, its subscribers were entitled to high definition Astro channels, personal video recording ...
in 2011, with the latter targeted at consumers who were unable to receive the company's satellite services. Astro formerly operated in
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
from 2006 to 2008, under the brand and was operated by PT Direct Vision.


List of Astro digital brands

*
Astro Awani Astro AWANI is a Malaysian news organisation that broadcasts its news via Channel 501 on Astro. Since 2018, Astro AWANI has been consecutively recognised as Malaysia's most trusted news source by the Reuter's Digital News Report published by R ...
- Astro's Flagship News Network. * Gempak - Malay entertainment website. ** Rojak Daily - Gempak's subpage. * Go Shop - Home shopping service. * Sooka - Television streaming service. * Stadium Astro - Sports news website. * Ulagam - Indian news and entertainment website. * Xuan - Chinese news and entertainment website. ** Hotspot - Xuan's subpage.


Criticism and controversies


Monopoly over paid television market

Astro has been criticised for its monopolistic practices in which it has become the dominant paid television service in Malaysia while its competitors
ABNXcess Asian Broadcasting Network (M) Sdn Bhd, DBA ABNxcess, was the sole digital cable television operator in Malaysia, launched on 8 June 2013. The company offers cable television services via the cable network which has been in operation since 2012 ...
, Mega TV, and
MiTV U Television Sdn. Bhd. (formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn. Bhd. and MiTV Corporation Sdn. Bhd.) is Malaysia's third pay television operator. It was launched on 5 September 2005, after having obtained all the necessary approvals from ...
were not able to compete against Astro and became defunct after Astro's launch. Astro was the sole paid television operator in Malaysia until 2017 when another competitor, Telekom Malaysia's
Unifi TV Unifi TV (stylized as unifi tv, formerly known as HyppTV prior to January 2018) is an IPTV service operated by Telekom Malaysia (TM). It was launched in 2010 as part of TM's bundled Triple-play service offering of VoIP Telephone, Internet and ...
, emerged as a strong
cord-cutting In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reduc ...
alternative. The Malaysian government's plan to regulate Android-based
set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
es in 2019 raised concerns that Astro's dominance over the country's television content market would be enhanced. While Astro's exclusive rights to Malaysian broadcast content expired in 2017, the company continues to have non-exclusive broadcast privileges under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. Starting in 2022, the
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (Abbreviation: MCMC; ms, Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia) is a regulatory body whose key role is the regulation of the communications and multimedia industry based on the po ...
will provide Content Applications Service Provider (CASP) licenses to 35 broadcasting companies, four of which are approved to deliver content via
satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
.


Sports content dispute

Astro has also enjoyed control of the broadcasting rights for
sports events Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, t ...
, including all
Liga Super The Malaysia Super League ( ms, Liga Super Malaysia) is the men's top professional football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP), now known as the Malays ...
and
Piala Malaysia The Malaysia Cup ( ms, Piala Malaysia), formerly known as ''Malaya Cup'', is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the nation's o ...
events, and the
FIFA World Cup 2014 The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...
and 2018. Competitors were restricted from airing those events, or were required by regulators to pay excessive royalties to Astro. The high royalty fees were criticised by Jeremy Kung, executive vice president of TM New Media, who argued that sports content on
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
television channels should be made available to public for free. Former Information, Communications, Arts and Culture minister
Rais Yatim Tan Sri Dato' Seri Utama Dr. Rais bin Yatim ( Jawi: رئيس بن يتيم; born 15 April 1942) is a Malaysian politician who is now serving as the 18th President of the Dewan Negara since September 2020. He was a Cabinet Minister in mul ...
urged the media groups who had exclusive rights to major sports events to share their content to
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
television channels.
Pakatan Harapan The Alliance of Hope ( ms, Pakatan Harapan; abbrev: PH; stylized as HARAPAN) is a Malaysian political coalition consisting of centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has been the r ...
youth chief
Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad Nik Nazmi bin Nik Ahmad ( Jawi: ; born 12 January 1982) is a Malaysian politician from the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of presently the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and formerly Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition who has served as Mi ...
argued that the rights to broadcast
English Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
should be co-licensed with
Radio Television Malaysia Radio Televisyen Malaysia ( en, Radio Television of Malaysia, abbreviated as RTM, stylised as rtm), also known as the Department of Broadcasting, Malaysia ( ms, Jabatan Penyiaran Malaysia) is the national public broadcaster of Malaysia. Establi ...
instead of restricted to Astro. Astro's short-lived Indonesian operations were also subject of investigation by Indonesian regulators, and accusations by rival providers, over allegations of the company also monopolizing Premier League rights in the country.


Overcharging

Astro has been criticised for raising its service prices and imposing penalty fees on customers. In 2007, Astro raised its service fee about 15% and converted previously free channels like
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...
, Al Jazeera English, and
CGTN China Global Television Network (CGTN) is the international division of state media outlet China Central Television (CCTV), headquartered in Beijing, China. CGTN broadcasts six news and general interest channels in five languages. CGTN is reg ...
into paid channels. Anyone who attempted to drop such service packages was charged a fee.
Malaysiakini ''Malaysiakini'' (meaning in English: "Malaysia Now") is an online news portal published in Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil. Malaysiakini receives over 2.3 million page-views per day on desktop and mobile. Alexa ranked ''malaysiakini.com'' ...
reporter Cheah Kah Seng encouraged customers to protest against the price hikes and provided instructions on how to do so. Due to broadcasting rights it has received from the Malaysian government, Astro raised its fees several more times in the following years, while consumers had fewer competitive alternatives. Astro often shows commercials on premium channels for which consumers paid for an ad-free experience. Customers who use the Astro
personal video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
(PVR), Astro MAX, have reported performance problems and difficulty in recording certain channels.


See also

* Astro Channel List *
Television in Malaysia Malaysian television broadcasting was introduced on 28 December 1963. Colour television was introduced on 28 December 1978. Full-time colour transmissions were officially inaugurated on New Year's Day 1982. There are currently 16 national free ...
*
Digital television in Malaysia :''See digital television for more technical details.'' In Malaysia, digital television broadcasts, DTV or DHD, can be received via cable, internet, satellite, or via free over-the-air (OTA) digital terrestrial television - much like analogue t ...
* Kristal-Astro


References


External links


Official website
{{CATV Africa, Asia, and Oceania 1996 establishments in Malaysia Television in Malaysia Astro Malaysia Holdings Satellite television Privately held companies of Malaysia