Would be great if Astro's IPTV had better coverage, even better if they can service housing areas which will not likely to be.

Not to say no competitors. The competitors all have crippling weaknesses. MiTV: Died because clueless (they have potential... but lousy coverage, and they overprice their package and make people buy decoder when Astro was giving away decoders for "free"). DETV: niche market because clueless (and almost all channels are Chinese, and when I requested for a channel, they ask "how contact the channel ah? Got people there speak Mandarin? We no speak good Engrish"). UniFi: Lousy coverage (only certain areas have) and cannot unbundle and take TV only.

I guess it depends on what you would like to watch. Sports fans definitely would still have to go back to Astro no matter what. Astro's IPTV also means no disruptions during rain which is also important for me. Also, at 6mbps for RM149 (compared to UniFi's 5mbps for RM149), sure seems good to me too espcially when it is serviced by TIME which I had pretty good experience with their service in the past compared to TM's.

Apparently the Astro channels subscription fee remains the same as those on the satellite dish, it's just that you will definitely have to subscribe to their Internet service as well. So it's the Internet package together with your Astro subscription fee (depending on the package/channels you subscribed).

Do correct me if I'm wrong about the subscription fees.

As has been stated earlier, it depends on what a customer wants and that will determine whether they will go for Astro or Unifi..so just because Astro has the same old crappy content, doesnt mean a person will just switch over to Unifi..

Take me for example..Im a crazy football..not just EPL but every other league I will try and follow..now even though Astro doesnt offer me some of the things I want, just because of EPL nd the football, I will stick with them coz I dont seem interested with much with UNifi has to offer..but for some TV enthusiast who dont necessarily have one MUST HAVE TV content, yes they can probably test both services..n talking bout internet, as noob and as stupid I might sound, I can survive with just broadband so Unifi TV bundled with internet services would not be in my best of interests..I hope u know what I mean

BTW, I have to disagree about Astro having exclusive rights for EPL..splitting EPL coverage over two providers would not make life better for football fans..it would create more burden..imagine u need two services to watch EPL (Astro & Unifi)..paying for that would be astronomical..and im just not talking about EPL..im talking about football in general..imagine u wanna see EPL and its on Astro but Champions League and Spanish La Liga is on Unifi..I think Singaporeans are facing this problem if Im not mistaken..

Yes I agree with u that probably some matches should be shown on FTA channels and at the same time on Astro..but u look at the Malaysian Super League..even that now has no coverage on FTA channels..only Astro has exclusive rights for that..luckily RTM can still show matches involving the Malaysian national team..

But can u blame Astro completely? Heck no..I will put a lot of blame also on FTA channels like RTM n Media Prima channels..they are simply not interested enough to show EPL or Malaysian football..look at Astro..since they took over the rights, there are at least 4 Live matches a week..when the rights was with RTM, only 1 match per week..and even that not guaranteed coz if government held those stupid festival open house, the matches will not be shown LIVE..their stupid highlights coverage is at 12 midnight every Sunday..how o u promote local football at that time of the day? n their presenters? All the same people who was in the same job 20 years ago..still the same bunch..suam2 kuku effort

N media Prima..when was the last time u saw any kind of football match on their channels? They would rather show Indon dramas 24 hours a day than do anything for the local sports scene..

Credit also has to be given to Astro..Astro Arena has brought sports of all kinds that Malaysian are involved with..they do bring some sports that u could not dream of would be shown on FTA channels simply coz those blokes at RTM and Media Prima just dont have an ounce of car about it..

I was staying in Hong Kong and they had Sky News on there. It is intended for UK and Ireland viewers but of course a lot of stories are international and people in this part of the world love their English football stories too.

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Added on April 28, 2011, 12:16 am

Yup but that deal came after EU competition bosses stopped them selling EPL exclusively to Sky. They now are forced to sell matches in 8 packages and one broadcaster can only buy a maximum of 6, that's why Setanta got the other 2 and then were taken over by ESPN. Basically Malaysia needs the same competition measures to dent Astro's dominance but you and I know know the likelyhood of that is slim.

tommorow will be installing byond..

anything i should take note at during the installation?

Anyone here can answer my question please?

Since the SKY NEWS HD will be unavailable starting from 12 midnight, then how about my royal wedding recording? Is that still available and I can watch it anytime that I want if I still take HD packages or it will lost and unwatchable because that particular channel are not available at astro? Please someone enlighten me about this matters....

You know them lah. Unless everyone boycott them then maybe they'll listen. But then there's all the kaki bola and Chinese drama addict who will still go along with them no matter what.

What we all can do, all call in to Astro call center and demand Sky be brought back. If got 100 caller maybe they will think twice.

If need, promise that we will agree to package price hike. After all, Singapore is not getting it cheap either. This is a "size-up package" for them. They need to sign up for basic news package, then pay more to "size-up" to premium package for Sky. And that's not counting Sky HD.

We got ASS trolled!

astro indeed search house by house, they found my max and change it to pvr FOC without HD channels

Bro, I think they are indeed changing codec. No other reason for them to force subscribers to switch to B.yond box otherwise (in case you missed out on the news- now it's mandatory for everyone to get a B.yond decoder. They're going house to house changing decoder and dish if necessary).

Although, the full codec switch would most likely come shortly only after all the decoders have been switched. That would still be months away....

There's a third option for them: make IPTV mode work over all broadband links like DETV and deliver at least on-demand content over that. If need allow device to piggyback over Maxis 3G (free 3G dongle that plugs into front USB port and only connects to special AP for Astro use over Maxis airwave). That way they can free out at least two dozen channels of the satellite. Or switch to IPTV completely with Maxis 3G dongle (or Maxis LTE once that launched). HSPA+ can do 14.4Mbps, enough for one HDTV stream. LTE can fly at 100Mbps. And if they use UDP Multicast, hardly any bandwidth will be used. Again, this will require that their B.yond switch plan is complete. Which is still months away.

I hope they regret selling off MEASAT 1 to South Africa and completely phasing out MEASAT 2.

when they change your decoder to beyond without activating the HD service, do they change your smart card and dish too?

IMG Sports Media is the production partner for all the BPL programs on mio stadium.  John Dykes has some deals with IMG hence we can get to see him and gang presenting the BPL programs from the UK studios.  For the magazine programs on mio stadium, they are produced by the local IMG Sports Media Singapore office with presenters like Jamie Reeves, Paul Masefield, Steve McMahon, Patrick Kinghorn, Soo Kui Jien, Dominic Lau etc.

More info here: http://info.singtel.com/node/7211

mio stadium only has rights to BPL, UEFA CL & UEFA Europa League. mio TV also carries Goal TV1 & Goal TV2 channels which has rights to Carling Cup, English Championshop, English League 1, Dutch Eredivisie & Scottish Premier League.

mio TV sports channels includes mio stadium Ch 102-109, mio stadium Ch 199 [on demand matches], ESPN, STAR Sports, Goal TV 1, Goal TV 2, STAR Cricket, ASN HD, ESPNEWS, ESPN HD & TEN Cricket

For Starhub sports channels and soccer rights, kindly see attached....too lazy to type out. 

mio TV has exclusive rights to BPL and UCL/UEL hence Starhub subscribers would need to subscribe to SingTel mio TV in order to catch these matches.  The proposed ruling from broadcasting authority, MDA, is that there will not be any exclusive contracts with program/rights providers like ESPN, BPL etc.  Hence, Starhub & SingTel can both carry BPL or ESPN or FOX News etc. on their own platforms.  However, this ruling has met with objections from the broadcasters as this would mean they cannot "sell" their channel to the highest bidder -- less $$ for them to pocket.

This ruling still has yet to come into effect due to these objections.

I notice some similarity between Astro & Starhub....in order to block their competitor to offer full-time channels of other channel, the dirty strategy is that they buy exclusive rights to 1/2 or 1/3 of programs on the channels to "feed" their in-house channel. e.g. by "buying" exclusive programs blocks of Eurosports News, Astro effectievly blocked Eurosports News to offer the 24/7 Eurosports Channel to providers like Hypp TV or DETV.

Starhub bought exclusive programs from Taiwan Channel, San Lih TV, hence SingTel is unable to bring in this channel to SingTel subscribers as a chunk of the San Li TV programs are exclusive to Starhub.

Let me know if you need more info. 

My comments are totally OT but I felt like saying it.

One thing I hv to say about ur comments, u hv been always very consistent in them. While I don't agree with most of what u say, I have to admire ur tenacity and ur vigour in always painting a negative picture of Astro. For that I salute u...