Astro (company)
All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator, doing business as Astro, is a Malaysian pay satellite television, streaming television and IPTV provider. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad and is operated by the communication satellite operator MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn. Bhd. It operates from the All Asia Broadcast Centre in Kuala Lumpur and the MEASAT in Cyberjaya.
It forms part of the mass media duopoly in the country alongside the Media Prima. Astro launched the high-definition platform Astro B.yond in 2009 and the IPTV platform Astro IPTV in 2011, with the latter targeted at consumers who were unable to receive the company's satellite services. The ultra high-definition platform Astro Ultra was launched at the end of 2019 while the full high-definition platform called Astro Ulti was introduced in the mid of 2021. Astro operated in Indonesia from 2006 to 2008, under the Astro Nusantara and also in Brunei from 2000 to 2022, under the Kristal-Astro brand. Indonesian operations were led by the PT Direct Vision, while Bruneian were led by Kristal Sdn. Bhd. In 2016, the company was recorded as achieving 71% household penetration in Malaysia.
History
Formation and early years
The licence to operate Astro, then unnamed, was given in June 1994 and was planned to have 20 channels through the Measat satellite. It was originally planned to launch in 1995, but postponed to 1996 with the launching initially took place in October and would be known as the All-Asia Satellite Television and Radio Operator, abbreviated as ASTRO and to be operated under its operating company, Measat Broadcasting Networks Systems. The upcoming satellite TV provider will offer 22 television channels and 8 radio stations in its platform.Ahead of its launch, Astro's operator, Measat Broadcast Networks Systems expected that its satellite TV and radio services will gain profit within two-and-a-half to three years with a total of 700,000 subscriber base.
Astro was launched on 25 September 1996, three months after its establishment. Upon its launch, the company planned to offer the internet speed facility to its customers by early 1997.
Astro signed an agreement with Maybank which allows its subscribers to settle their monthly fees via the autophone and autodebit services as well as via automatic bill settlement facility provided by the bank through Visa and Mastercard.
Astro planned to open four out of seven showrooms nationwide by the first quarter of 1997. The company also planned to reach the target of 400 installations as early as January 1997. Astro also submitted its proposal to began broadcasting overseas. Two months later, the company entered a joint-venture with film production companies to produce program varieties.
On 1 April 1997, Astro appointed MOCCIS Trading, a trading arm of MOCCIS Berhad, to market and promote its service to its members via a monthly payment scheme.
Astro planned to establish its own private telecommunications network as part of its preparation to launch a range of multimedia interactive services as well as to increase its business reach. The company also spent RM25 million to enhance its services for domestic and global market.
Astro became the first client of the Canadian telecommunication equipment company, Nortel's Global Account programme for the ASEAN region. In July 1997, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Faber Group Berhad in which Astro will provide its satellite television services to seven of Faber-owned Sheraton hotels.
From 27 September to 16 November 1997, Astro offers installation fees for its Direct-to-U system installation. It also targets at least 20,000 hotels for its pay-television operations by the year-end.
In December 1997, Astro partnered with Oracle Corporation in which the latter would help developing its web-based corporate database for its business strategy. It also allocates RM100 million to provide a Direct-to-U price subsidy to its customers.
In 1998, Astro plans to expand its operations in the Philippines and Taiwan with RM200 million of allocation. The plan was later abandoned for unknown reasons.
Expansion of operations
Between 2000 and 2006, Astro shared time with TV Pendidikan, Malaysian public educational TV channel, where it shared time with Animal Planet on Channel 28 from 2000 to 2001 and with now-defunct TechTV on Channel 13 from 2002 to 2006. The move received much criticism from many parties, demanding that the network should remain aired on public broadcaster, RTM rather than Astro at least until 2002. However, Astro decided to not aired TV Pendidikan upon the expiration of its 6-year agreement with the channel's operator, the Ministry of Education, resulting TV Pendidikan moved to TV9, owned by media conglomerate Media Prima in 2007.In 2000, Astro's residential subscriber base have exceeded about 300,000 households in just three years after its official launch. Astro also targets a total of a million subscribers nationwide in the next two years. The company enters a joint-venture with Kristal Sdn. Bhd. from Brunei to launch Kristal-Astro on 24 January 2000. The service, however, ceased operations 22 years later, in 2022.
The company had invested over RM1 billion to build a digital broadcasting facility and developed a multimedia services. Astro also spent at least RM350 to subsidized its Digital Multimedia System in order to make its service is "affordable for more Malaysian families". The company also planned to expand its services across Asian region.
By June 2001, Astro's subscription total has increased to 600,000.
In April 2002, Astro signed an agreement with Scripps Networks Interactive for the distribution of six TV series from HGTV in Malaysia and Brunei.
By September the same year, Astro reduced 10% of its staffs under the voluntary separation scheme.
The company set up a joint-venture company with Indonesian conglomerate, Lippo Group to provide pay-TV service in Indonesia as early as July 2005. As a result, Astro's satellite TV service in Indonesia, known as Astro Nusantara was launched in March 2006. It also invested RM500 million to support its operations in the republic. However, Astro Nusantara only operated for two years and ceased operations when Astro ended their joint-venture with PT Direct Vision in September 2008.
On 1 October 2007, Astro renumbered all of its channel numbers from 2-digits to 3-digits to accommodate its expanding number of channels.
In 2007, Astro dominates 29% of television viewership market in Malaysia, after Media Prima and Radio Televisyen Malaysia.
In December 2009, Astro launched its high-definition service, known as Astro B.yond with a new decoder set and channels in HD feeds.
Astro partnered with TIME dotCom Berhad in December 2010 to implementated the broadband and IPTV service in Klang Valley and Penang.
In 2013, Astro signed an agreement with Telekom Malaysia's wholly owned subsidiary, TM Net Sdn. Bhd. to broadcast two Astro SuperSport channels on the latter's pay-TV service, HyppTV.
Recent developments
On 1 December 2014, Astro signed a joint-venture with South Korean retail company, GS Retail Co. Ltd. to launch a home shopping channel, Go Shop. However, the joint-venture only survived for 9 years and following the changing in consumer's shopping landscape, Go Shop ceased operations on 12 October 2023 as part of the company's "ongoing strategic realignment underway".In March 2016, Astro launched its regional video platform, Tribe, which targets to Indonesian market.
In 2017, Astro enters a strategic partnership with CJ E&M from South Korea to create and produced contents and events for ASEAN market. The company also enters a long-term partnership with print publishing company, Karangkraf to form a joint-venture company focused on content production, Karangkraf Digital 360, which was later renamed as Nu Ideaktiv.
Astro alongside Media Prima and DiGi Telecommunications collaborated to launch a digital learning hub, known as JomStudi in January 2019. The initiative, which supported by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, provides educational resources in a single platform which accessible to students.
The company enters a partnership with Chinese streaming platform, IQIYI in 2019, in which Astro acquired an exclusive rights to distributed the IQIYI's content in Malaysia. Astro also responsible for the latter's customer acquisition, marketing and media sales.
On 1 April 2020, Astro rearranged its channel numbers in order to prioritize its 100 HD channels on its platform.
In 2021, Astro partnered with Netflix to expand its content offering in which the latter's service will be made available on Astro's platform.
In May 2024, Astro and state-owned public service broadcaster, Radio Televisyen Malaysia have partnered to envisioned an initiative in support to Palestine by launching Malaysia4Palestine, a special channel dedicated to highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Palestine in the wake of the ongoing Gaza war. The channel began one-day broadcasting on 25 May 2024. Among artistes who involved in the project were Siti Nurhaliza, M. Nasir, Syafinaz Selamat, Alif Satar, Soo Wincci, Sarimah Ibrahim, Aznil Nawawi and Wani Kayrie.
On 17 October, Astro revamp its sports content lineup which will feature new names and channel numbers. The change will saw Astro SuperSport channels which will be replaced with Astro-branded sports channels, such as Astro Premier League, Astro Football, Astro Badminton and Astro Sports Plus.
Astro announced on 18 November that both Astro Warna and Astro Premier would be discontinued as a linear TV channel and merged both channels with Astro Prima and Astro Citra respectively, to match the Astro's new corporate branding. The merger between Citra and Premier took effect two days later, on 20 November, while the merger of Prima and Warna took effect on 3 December. Under this plan, Astro Warna and Astro Premier will exclusively operated as a content hub on Astro on Demand and Astro GO. However, Astro Warna's permanent shutdown received negative feedback from netizens which supported its closure, citing that "there is no any improvements for programmes aired" a part of programmes that aired repeatedly on the channel.
On 2 December, Astro begin leasing a ABS-CBN Corporation-owned property, ABS-CBN Soundstage at the Horizon IT Park, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, Philippines, to increase its global footprint. At the same time, it introduced Astro One, an entertainment package which includes three new packages: Entertainment, Sports, and Epic, which "is built with a customer-first approach".