Its pointless.... we all know that Malaysia only follow the Big 4....

who would want to watch Wigan vs Stoke? waste of time and broadcast money...

all lies!!lies i tell you!!

astro manyak tipu.cheats!!they know only to suck our money.dah la x clear, always 200% broadcast interruption and very lowya service for a freaking expensive fee.

the so called all matches i doubt they will show it, even if they did it will be at the expense of us having to pay more(sudah naik rm12 the sports package back then) or at less from other leagues.

pffffttt damn hard living here wth the communist type of provider.

we need more coverage for eredivisie,Scots PL and J-league too
i'm a manchester united fan.no doubt about it,but i also watched birmingham city,everton,aston villa,manchester city matches
heck i'd rather watch english mid-table team matches than top italian club matches

Actually compared to our neighbour to the south, Astro is best cable provider there is. Imagine if there is another competition. You're going to be split in half and ended up paying more than what you intent at first. Their Byond package is also really neat and nice. For an extra measly RM20 i get HD and free world cup coverage on it. And i heard more and more channels will be in HD by year end right ?
You cant blame the provider for the inflation. Now i dont believe i can live without the extra channels we're having at the moment compared to what two years ago ? Now, with supersports 2, its even more worth it. Italian football has got more coverage for it. Why wouldnt i pay more ?
Imagine paying $80 for the world cup. Thats what singaporeans are paying.
The only minor fall is when it rains, other than that, i dont see any problem with it. Blame customer service? Heck give me a company which has a good customer service and is big in Malaysia.

sometimes i watched mls/j-league /copa libertadores match in astro supersport and i can't help from noticing how crappy the comentators are

the graphic looks....umm,outdated maybe because they used different video encoding system(they used NTSC while most asian countries used PAL system)

it's hard to digitalized it in real time and we got it directly from the source (instead of going through the espn hq in singapore first) so don't expect a bpl-like graphic quality.

but i do expect a european(nay,english!) comentating standard.

Aside from Spurs, I won't say the rest have a "huge" following. Of that list, only Spurs have an official supporters club here in Malaysia. Think maybe Everton as well but it's a relative small following. Of all the football fans I know, 1 supports Everton, maybe 8 support Spurs but none support Newcastle, Villa or Man City. I reckon the latter has gained a small spike in following since they turned rich over night. The majority of fans I know, don't watch games not involving their teams which is why you often hear half assed comments and wonder if they were watching another team. I once had someone from ASTRO come to pitch a Premier League programme to us and he verified that Man Utd and Liverpool are ahead in terms of viewership. Chelsea have closed that gap recently while Arsenal are still lagging behind. Unless the other clubs you mentioned play against one of the "Big Four", they don't get much viewership. This is my understanding of it anyway.

The vast majority of Malaysian's still only watch games involving the "Big Four". Your definition of the "Big 4" is based on current form but Liverpool whilst not the giants we were before is still a big name and still have millions of supporters around the world. Hence, TV coverage of our games is still lucrative. Man U are struggling? They finished 2nd in the league. Arsenal are still constantly in the top four and English sides still consistently go far in Europe. Only recently have the likes of Man City, Villa and Spurs sneaked into the top 4. I therefore do not agree with your reasoning.

its less than 30days to kick off of EPL,,
astro havent annouce yet on which channel they will show the matches...

4) Shebby Singh
5) Jay Menon
6) "Football Fans" who love and support clubs they know little or nothing about.

If you ask me, hot chicks hosting football shows should limit themselves to wearing tight t's, and posing provocatively. They should not pretend to be a "fan" of a club and pretend they like and understand football and football fans.

It'd be interesting to note the format, hopefully the contract would not be too long for them to 'switch back' if it all fails horribly.  What's interesting is that SuperSport has 3 channels of which 1 is in HD.  So I'd think 2-3 matches simultaneously?  With only the 'selected' one in HD then.

As long as they don't use the other in-house english commentator, the chap who commentates on the MSL and J League, etc etc matches! He's quite bad IMO, not up to mark and doesn't do a lot of homework as well.  I've not heard the rest doing the commentary (Jason, Jay, Roshan) so am not too sure of the 'standard' thus far.  I just hope they use the actual feed from Sky or something.

3 years?!  Hopefully it'll be SKY feed then, or even BBC/ITV.  Not local ones, that's all we ask!

Dump Steve McMahon... Too arrogant and thinks Liverpool & Man Utd are the only two football clubs in England...

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Added on July 23, 2010, 4:19 pmAstro should seriously not create channel brands just for EPL... That'll give them an excuse to raise the price...

Instead use Supersports and Arena to focus Bundesliga... Most profitable league last season, increased viewership and there German football fans in Malaysia too... There is a market for it... ESPN & StarSports should focus on EPL oni...

drop the french league channel, no one really follows French League. Instead, channel 811 and 816 can broadcast English game becoz i think Serie A and La Liga play diff time ryte?

Actually, why don't they open a chn for EPL like how they did for World Cup?

I don't see that's how its going to work... I thought it was only ESPN-STAR who won the contract... But we should be thankful it went to Astro and not TM... Imagine if had TM won da contract... Limited Unifi Coverage vs Massive demand for EPL... That would be nightmare for all EPL fans... lol!

I seriously think they should drop the French league... Who da heck watches Lille vs Lyon or Toulesse vs  Lorient...

I don't find Italian league any lucrative either (sorry to the itallian league fans)... I just don't find Torino vs Reggina interesting...

Back to the topic, looking at the way they are going to promote, I see Astro Supersport being the main channel with 3 live matches simultaneously... So the coverage is spreaded out... As you can see, Astro is promoting FourFourTwo... Which only indicates their intentions to make the main channel... lol!
Cost... World Cup they can recover back the cost and plus its a shorter period... EPL is 9 months long... Imagine the cost involved to use the channel 9 months long... The English FA did mention about coming up with their own channel to broadcast EPL... But I think it got turned down... lol!

Bro... You got it all wrong... I just check the August's AstroView magazine... All EPL matches are shown ESPN-Star... Nothing is on Supersports during EPL matches time... Football Focus has been replaced by Barclay's Express or something like that... Mon - Fri @ 8 pm if I'm not mistaken...

When they said Astro won the rights, it meant that ESPN-Star won the rights... The reason why its a victory for Astro is because Astro have an "Exclusivity Contractual Agreement" with ESPN-Star... The only other bidder for EPL rights for South-East Asia is TM Unifi... Astro represented ESPN-Star during the bidding process... lol!

lol so much drama for something that did not happen ><

Admittedly, I haven't been following any football news since Inter lifted the Champions League but news that John Dykes has left the EPL is sad. He's the face of Astro's EPL coverage. I'll be happy if McMahon stays if it means I do without Andrew Leci. Please, for the love of God, drop Andrew Leci. He's like the male Stephanie Meyer of hosting. He's diabolical!

And if Astro ever stop getting SkySports feed, I'll unsubscribe the sports package and just listen to BFM 89.9.

Astro planning to beam all 380 games of upcoming season
By TEH ENG HOCK
enghock@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: For the first time, Astro All Asia Networks (Astro) is planning to beam all 380 English Premier League games of the upcoming 2010/11 season live into the homes of its sports package subscribers.

After the month-long FIFA World Cup “live” galore, the stage is now being set for a Barclays Premier League (BPL) “feast”.

The move will be significant, if it comes through, as only 120 BPL matches are shown live over a season, even in England.

Astro CEO Datuk Rohana Rozhan, who disclosed this to The Star, said the network was preparing to broadcast all BPL games live.

This would mean that local supporters of the lower-ranked teams in the BPL would get to see their teams in action every week.

The spotlight is now on glamour teams – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool – with six matches shown live over the weekend and four delayed telecasts.

“Our aim is to show all 380 matches live. We’ll decide from those matches which teams to broadcast in HD (high definition).

“The big games will be shown in HD and maybe some in 3D,” Rohana said.

Rohana said the BPL matches would be aired over ESPN, StarSports, SuperSports 1 and SuperSports 2.

She said that Astro was also planning to create a SuperSports 3 channel for the purpose.

“Some matches would be streamed online as well as on Astro Arena, to allow access to our three million subscribers,’’ she added.

Rohana said there would be no issue over broadcast rights as Astro and ESPN StarSports had been successful after making a joint bid.

On whether there would be an increase in the sports package monthly subscription charges, Rohana said that would be “the last consideration.”

“We have to understand the fact that we have to make it affordable and customers must see value in that. Now we have to balance it against content cost,” she said.

Sixty per cent of Astro’s 2.94 million subscriber base are subscribers of the sports package, with RM66.95 being the minimum charge.

As for the other major European football leagues, Astro will air four matches each from the Italian Serie A and the German Bundesliga live each weekend, while Spanish Serie A fans will get to enjoy five live matches.

Well, I did see ads that say ESPN will also be bringing in some EPL content, so maybe it is really a collaboration between Astro and ESPN for the rights.  The only thing I can think of is that they will try to bring up to 5 to 6 games LIVE (ch 811, 812, 813, 816, 831, 832, etc) all at once, so that this frees up time for other league's games.  Maybe those not brought LIVE would be delayed or screened at a later time then.  My 2 cents la.