Wow. Things are heating up here.

Indeed... everyone already knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford it and more than willing to pay extra but what is actually happening for Ass-tro is that this "business entity" (not NGO) is treating subscribers too unfairly by their cut-throat overpriced subscription fees for more and more lousy channels, more and more commercials and EVEN more percentage of repeats. In fact, Ass-tro as a business concern is becoming more and more like TVB Jade channel in Hong Kong operated by TVB Hong Kong... but the problem here is that TVB Jade is totally free-to-air broadcast in Hong Kong while Ass-tro charges a premium subscription!! If Ass-tro wants to operate in the same way as TVB in Hong Kong, then give us more and more premium channels free-of-charge by putting them into NJOI... why do I say that? Ass-tro wants to put in more and more commercials and more and more repeats to earn more profits so its fair for any business to do that. What Ass-tro should not have, is to eat both sides of the cake at the same time... make more profits through more commercials and repeats and still charge over-priced subscriptions !!

Be it as it may, I have never expected Ass-tro for any free lunch. In fact, I have no complaints and don't mind paying more to watch any latest movies in Astro Best or Astro PPV eventhough the experience may not be as good as watching it in the cinema or watching it from blu-rays with superb Dolby Atmos surround system. At least there is zero commercial and available before the bluray release.

I don't mind paying and can afford to pay toll charges to use the KL-Karak Highway because I do know that there are costs and they have to make profits too. What happens IF the KL-Karak Highway company erects more and more and more advertising walls along the highway, didn't maintain the road properly and then increase the toll charges 50% every year ? Yes, I don't expect a free lunch here BUT will you still be willing to pay and not complain?

It comes to only thing in my mind... I should NOT complain too much because I am still subscribing to Ass-tro for whatever reasons or I have too much money to spend. What is actually happening these recent years is that... this situation is unhealthy and as it deteriorates, more and more existing subscribers will be reducing their subscriptions or even terminate totally! Possibly less and less new subscribers will sign up forcing Ass-tro to increase the commercials and more repeats so more and more existing subscribers may leave. Its a vicious circle!!

I am more disillusioned than ever with Ass-tro and as time goes by, I am already reducing my Packs... packed up all my clothes and is about to step out the door completely. Rest assured, if this deteriorates further, I will step out completely.

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: May 16 2016, 03:10 PM

You can't literally compare with TVB Jade as in Hong Kong and Malaysia's Astro one. You need to know that the TVB Jade channel we watch on Astro is actually the Malaysia feed, not the exact same version as what you watch in Hong Kong. And, this is consider as TVB selling its programmes content to Astro, so it is not surprising to see that Astro is charging the channel for it.

But the fact which is unreasonable is, TVB Jade pack is overpriced. Yet Astro still expects customers interested to subscribe to it, and expect them to pay even more, as if the monthly subscription for Super Pack 3/Super Pack Plus 3/4 still not much enough for them.

Yes, the MCorp chs cannot be made available anywhere as the acquired foreign programs (dramas, movies, music programs etc.) on the chs only has SG rights.

That's why only TV1 is available on Starhub, TV2 is not allowed due to the English acquired programs.

Mio has their supporters as they offer more HD versions of channels that StarHub does not want to offer, e.g. [V]HD, Kid HD, Cartoon Network HD, Baby TV HD, Toonami HD etc.

This post has been edited by Qash-M: May 16 2016, 09:54 PM

I definitely do know that the actual content shown by TVB in Hong Kong is different from the one shown by Ass-tro here because I do watch the actual feed from Hong Kong and have compared it. You are missing my actual point here.

What I am trying to state earlier is that the TVB Jade channel broadcast in Hong Kong relies on commercials, overseas content sales and other income avenues to survive and so this channel can therefore be shown free-to-air without viewers paying anything.

Here at Astro, we pay subscriptions to watch the premium channels that NJOI viewers don't get. What subscribers here pay for should by right get premium channels with less commercials, less repeats and less intrusive advertisements such as the "Ola Bola" movie appearing everywhere (a few months ago) as pop-out or message in Info Banner. Incidentally, Ola Bola commercial is showing its ugly head again for Astro Best and myself including many of my friends are still boycotting that movie!

Yeah, its different between TVB Jade shown in Hong Kong and the one shown in Ass-tro... the one in Hong Kong has many commercials but its free-to-air... and Ass-tro TVB Jade version are charged RM 15.90 and yet still have commercials.

Therefore, I am totally right to make that comparison based on what we should by right get for Paid Premium Channels against Free-To-Air Channels. Its the commercials and the ridiculous number of repeats for the Paid Premium Channels that I am making the comparison. Its NOT a comparison based on the contents shown here and those contents shown in Hong Kong.

As far as I am concerned, its totally okay and justified to bombard us with many commercials for the 28 TV channels shown for NJOI viewers because these viewers don't pay any subsciptions and Ass-tro is a business enterprise which needs to make profit too.

Maya HD Channel 135 is included for no-subscription NJOI viewers so I can accept that this channel have lots of commercials. Just like TVB Jade channel in Hong Kong with no-subscription have lots of commercials. Yes, there are satellite link and other incidental costs that Ass-tro have to bear to bring TVB Jade channel to us here and its fair to charge us BUT I am questioning whether its fair to charge us the expensive RM 19.90 for SuperPack subscribers and RM 53.00 add-on for Movies Bundle subscribers... and we still get lots of commercials together with many content that are already shown in other channels !

This post has been edited by jamesleetech: May 16 2016, 09:19 PM

I see. Do you know why Astro charge that expensive for Jade pack? Mainly is because they want to earn more profit. Last time, Astro will increase any packages price as they like once every year within 2011 until 2014. It is believed that this angered many customers, so Astro came out a new strategy. That is, launch new channels in a package and charge expensively, so that only the minorities of customers that interested to subscribe the newly introduced will tend to complain of overpriced package. You can also refer this Jade pack like the Golf Channel, Setanta Sports, etc. Last time just because Astro wants to earn more profit, whenever Astro announces price hike, all customers will be affected. So this new strategy will help Astro to "cover" the profit as much as possible. I would say, Astro is not being loyal to customers. They monopolised the Malaysian pay tv market and they can do whatever they like to gain more endless profits. Money is everything to Astro, and they put your Astro bill payment as No. 1 priority. Late payment will result in account suspension. So next time, if you wonder why Astro charge this and charge that, you'll now know why.

haha what a bunch of bull crap

Took a while to understand it, dem sly astro marketing. Dahlah ayat yg diolah terbalik. #ohMyBM

*Edited*

This post has been edited by Qash-M: May 17 2016, 08:13 AM

Asstro is always a winner, it has about 20 - 30 % customers from its large customer base who are filthy rich,buy whatever and they watch or not they , keep paying without any fuss for years,If you notice they are not interested to bring new channels,improve their STB box,move to MPEG4,3D,UHD,better sound options,etc etc.They are more to leasing transponders business. They have more then a dozen channels repeating content since 1996! Due to so many other sources they are losing chinese and indian customers by the day,besides the 30% rich customers they are supported by malay and sports customers

This post has been edited by smileguy: May 17 2016, 10:41 AM

hehehe..... didn't notice such a heated discussion thread....
Did you guys also notice that nowadays Asstro will charge you RM50 for on-site service (e.g. bad signal reception etc.) if your subscription is below RM100/mth? Last time it used to be free service for such technical support

I hope Astro launching new Chinese HD/SD Channels such as CHK HD, Now International HD, Now Jelli HD, Now Hairun and ATV Overseas. Because Chinese customers need more Now TV, ViuTV, ATV, HKTV content from Hong Kong and Jiangsu Television content from China.

This post has been edited by Low Li Hao: May 18 2016, 09:49 AM

dnt hope it is impossible

Asstro will only launch channels which will sign deals with them and agree to buy their rotten kitchen stuffs,no channels can disturb their In House channels and also Celestial Movies!

Dont think astro will price down anytime soon. Maybe with another player coming in. I worked at what u can call remote area in sabah for 5 years and almost every each of the kampung house there has astro lol. They have no choice there.

But im already cut the cord already. Will return the box back this weekend. Never been happier.

even at kampung area nowdays has astro , like u said they have no choice .. unlike us in the city at least there is hypptv , but meehhh

Don't think you are happy, until Anwar Ibrahim is free from prison and work with Dr Mahathir to fight againist Najib Razak then new goverment of Malaysia has been formed then Astro will continue monopoly at 2017.

I wonder why astro can pop up everywhere in kampung but not unifi

someplace in klang valley still using streamyx not even unifi , so you can aspect why unifi didnt pop up in kampung area