Kuala Lumpur – Astro has rolled out its anticipated local package, Mustika, containing three channels: international movies, general entertainment and Bollywood movies, priced at RM12.95 (US$3.68) per month. Pay TV channels have been watching these developments closely, aware that Astro’s increased investment in local content will result in reduced spend on international channels. Astro has previously made clear its plans to achieve 60 percent penetration of Malaysian TV households by 2012, from its current 44 percent. Astro says the introduction of the new Mustika pack is “to provide more premium content choices to Malaysians especially the Malay speaking community for a wide variety in general entertainment.” The three new channels are: Astro Citra, positioned as the Malaysian version of HBO, featuring a combination of local and international premium blockbuster movie titles, epic dramas and original mini-series. Astro Warna is described as “Malaysia’s first 24 hour stress-free channel made up of comedies, sitcoms, light dramas, entertainment/variety shows suitable for all ages. It is the home of top local comedians.” And B4U, direct from the UK, is an international turnaround channel offering the best of new and premium blockbuster Bollywood movie titles. Prashant Kumar, CEO Universal McCann Malaysia told Television Asia Plus, “Frankly Astro’s biggest opportunity today is not the number of channels or even the penetration levels. They own the Tamil content space already pretty much. Now the battle for them lies in winning Malay viewership. TV9, the free-to-air (FTA) Malay special offering has viewership that often is higher than Astro Malay channels combined. FTA channels are still among the largest viewed channels on Astro. Chinese programming has very little loyalty, as people watch programs not so much channels, so the fragmentation is immense & people on the same evening move between Wah Lai Toi, 8TV, TV2 & NTV7 seamlessly. It would seem that new Astro penetration is more about lifestyle statement than content consumption. I sense that Astro is acutely aware of that and is trying hard to crack the space.”
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