Astro launches ‘on’the’go’ service, iPad version first off the mark
By Digital News Asia May 30, 2012
- New service on smartphones, tablets, laptops
- To be rolled out in three phases; free preview immediately available
SATELLITE pay TV company Astro has launched its “on-the-go” service that would give customers access to Astro TV channels, LIVE Events, Video-On-Demand (VOD) and Catch Up TV across multiple online and mobile devices, starting with the iPad.
The service would be rolled out to other smartphones, tablets or laptops, the company said in a statement.
Astro On-The-Go will be available in three phases. In the first phase, all Astro customers will be able to experience a free preview from now until August 31. This free preview includes 11 TV channels, Catch Up Titles, Video On Demand Titles and LIVE events.
In addition all Astro customers will be able to catch all 31 LIVE matches of the UEFA EURO 2012 football tournament, exclusive UEFA Catch Up videos, and UEFA VOD titles via Astro On-The-Go on their device of choice.
The commercial roll-out of Astro On-The-Go, which starts on September 1 onwards, will entitle only Astro B.yond IPTV customers and customers with more than one decoder to the service. During this phase, Astro On-The-Go will be extended to Android devices too, the company said.
Phase three culminates in the new service being offered to all Astro customers and subsequently to non-Astro customers by the end of the year.
“Astro On-The-Go is an individual's personal TV experience which you can take with you; … for instance, you can be enjoying live football matches on your iPad while you are traveling in your car,” said Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Astro chief executive officer.
“It also satisfies the demands of the younger generation and is the perfect complement to their lifestyle choices, and marks our journey from the living room to all rooms within each and every household,” she added.
Currently, the 11 TV channels available on Astro On-The-Go include CNN, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, One HD, Astro Awani, Astro Xiao Tai Yang, Astro TVIQ, Astro Warna, Astro AEC, Astro Ria Plus, and Astro Shuang Xing. More TV channels will be introduced in the near future, the company said in its statement.
Astro also introduced Video-On-Demand on Broadband connected decoders with PVR with access to a large library of local and international Video-On-Demand titles. With this, Astro customers can, for the first time, watch the latest Astro First and Sundance movies anywhere, anytime. More titles will soon be added into the VOD library, including box office titles such as Black Swan, Dorian Gray, California Solo as well as Astro First Movie Nongkrong.
The video lineup on Catch Up TV will soon be extended to new titles, which include Malay hit Ngongkrong and local educational series Oh My English” Korean dramas such as Secret Garden, Scales of Justice and others, as well as Disney favorites in Phineas and Ferb and Art Attack.
Astro Malaysia Holdings Sdn Bhd is an integrated cross-media group with operations in four key businesses: Pay TV, Radio, Content and Digital. Launched in 1996, it claims a 50% penetration of TV homes in Malaysia or 3.1 million customers. It broadcasts over 153 channels, of which 19 are in High Definition.