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Malaysia’s largest pay TV operator Astro will now target potential Astro B.yond IP-TV customers among the current 1.4 million homes in Malaysia passed by HSBB (High-Speed Broadband) fibre.
“The term “homes-passed” means the number of homes which can be connected to the fibre, not those already served and Astro’s promotional teams will be busy trying to convince homes to subscribe to the service.
Astro ties up with Maxis on B.yond IP-TV
This follows a joint announcement in Kuala Lumpur on 30 April by Astro and integrated communications service provider Maxis, that Astro would deliver its scheduled and on-demand B.yond IP-TV programmes and streaming videos over fibre via Maxis. Maxis lays its own fibre and to “not re-invent the wheel,” it also leases fibre on Telekom Malaysia’s HSBB network under the equal-access terms required by the government, which has invested in the HSBB network.
While Astro B.yond may seem like “old hat;” indeed it is and then again it isn’t. Providing a clearer picture on that seeming contradiction, Astro Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Rohana Rozhan explained that Astro currently serves 3.5 million of Malaysia’s 6.7 million households via direct-to home-TV via satellite and also via Time dotCom’s fibre, which is about 52% household penetration.
The 3.5 million also include Astro NJOI customers, mostly in rural areas, who receive 19 TV and 20 radio channels with entertainment, information and learning free-of charge. Viewers can also view premium content by purchasing an NJOI prepaid card, with rates starting from RM2 for two days or RM1 per day.
B.yond is Astro’s high-definition (HD) TV broadcast originally launched on 18 December, 2009. It was originally delivered via satellite HD set top boxes in homes and digital video recording (or what Astro calls “Personal Video Recording” or “PVR”) on 1 June 2010. Astro entered into a strategic partnership with Time dotCom in December 2010 to deliver B.yond IP-TV service over Time’s fibre and both companies formally announced in a big bang at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur two years ago on 20 April 2011.
This tie-up with Time dotCom solves a major problem for some apartment dwellers, in that they may not be able to find a suitable location to mount their satellite dish so that it can be pointed at the satellite. This would especially affect apartment dwellers on the “wrong” side of the apartment block which faces away from the satellite, and especially so if they are on the lower flows of a high-rise apartment block.
Astro over Time fibre – September 2011
Here Time’s fibre brings Astro B.yond directly into apartments without having to rely on the satellite. Moreover, fibre is not affected by the kind of signal attenuation or “rain fade” due to heavy rain which totally disrupts viewing for a while.
Today, of those 3.5 million homes now served by Astro, 2.2 million are on the B.yond platform, including 100,000 via Time fibre, and Astro now delivers 170 channels, including 31 in HD.
Through this partnership with its sister company Maxis, Astro hopes to deliver Astro B.yond IP-TV and video-on-demand service to subscribers mostly in landed properties, rather than apartments or “MDUs” (“multi-dwelling units”) as Astro calls them. Moreover Rohana expects Malaysia to have 7.7 million households five years down the road.
A win-win situation Of course, these partnerships are a win-win situation of the parties involved, in that Astro gets to sell its TV and radio content, while the fibre network operator gets to sell broadband Internet and even fixed voice.
The Astro with Maxis offerings come in three parts – i.e. a TV package, Maxis Home Fibre Internet package and an optional Home Voice package. Each with its own prices.
The TV package prices start at RM37.95 per month for the Family Pack, inclusive of 50 channels or which 10 are in high-definition, with the option to add favourite channels for additional fees.
For RM75 per month, subscribers can sign up for one of the three Value Packs customised for Malay, Indian and Chinese viewers. Each Value Pack includes the Astro Family Pack and HD programmes.
Then there are four Super Packs catered to Chinese, Indian, Malay and “Urban” viewers. They include the Family Pack, HD TV, recording service, 10 exclusive channels, over 700 hours access to Astro Select HD and standard-definition (SD) video-on-demand films, and Astro-on-the-Go video-on-demand films accessible on smartphones, tablets and PCs over WiFi or Maxis 3G. The Malay, Indian and Urban Super Packs cost RM125 per month, whilst the Chinese Super Pack costs RM155 per month.
The Maxis Home Fibre Internet package comes in 10, 20 and 30 Mbps broadband Internet options at promotional prices of RM148, RM198 and RM248 per month respectively for the next few months, after which they will cost RM168, RM238 and RM298 per month respectively. Scheduled HD and SD TV programmes do not eat into these bandwidth, since they have their own allocated bandwidth but video-on-demand programmes do.
A HD video stream typically consumes 6.8Mbps bandwidth. Viewers can choose not to subscribe to Fibre Internet but they then will not be able to view video-on-demand programmes.
The optional Home Voice Package costs RM20 per month without a telephone handset. It comes with RM30 call credit with unlimited free calls to Maxis fixed lines, 5sen per minute for local calls and 9sen per minute nationwide to non-Maxis fixed lines, and also 9sen per minute to non-maxis mobile numbers.
