It is unlikely that Media Prima are doing the downscaling as their play out system in Sri Pentas has been in HD since 2017 (and completely in HD for their main and backup play system sometime after that, somewhere after 2019?). Astro might be receiving the feed directly from Media Prima in HD and do all the downscaling themselves in SD (as Media Prima is not paying the necessary cost to allow them to broadcast in HD).

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Mar 1 2022, 10:11 PM

Personally noticed that while watching matches via Mediacorp channels . They have inserts from Bein Sports during the break.

In program cover for channel that is unavailable on a platform

Taken via Gem on Unifi TV (Unifi exclusive, the ad they cover is promo for One, which is Astro exclusive)

Obviously ad replacement is common thing in Astro (and Unifi TV), which removes "irrelevant" ads. Most providers usually left the feed untouched (never a thing in Malaysia due to censorship purpose)

I have a question though: does Astro do so in program to remove promos for channels that are unavailable on Astro?

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Dec 17 2022, 12:21 AM

I don't think so as Mediacorp, StarHub and Singtel purchased the 2022 World cup rights together. They might be just taking the feed from Bein as there is no mention for "Bein Sports" for right holders section in Singapore.

It is also a complete clean feed too.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Dec 17 2022, 12:52 AM

At least from today as it is not there yet as on yesterday.

But then there are ads before the start of livestream so it would be better to just access the stream via RTM Klik, which is available instantly or even better, via linear platforms (MYTV DTT/Astro Satellite).

Not sure for Unifi TV during the match as they did not hold the rights for the match (which has to be checked later).

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Feb 22 2023, 07:27 PM

As I guessed. RTM free to air rights only covers MYTV (terrestrial/satellite) and MyKlik. Astro is obviously covered as they are the rights holder (with additional live coverage and commentary on Astro Arena for the matches that are available over RTM terrestrial transmission).
Since Astro introduced Sooka, the live coverage on Arena has been severely reduced (so as to encourage people to pay for NJOI Sports pack/Sooka/upgrade to Astro).

Well all Unifi TV users are strongly encouraged and advised to have MYTV terrestrial as a backup to the IPTV service for such cases (and have wider access to free to air channels otherwise unavailable in Unifi TV + less latency). The same is to applicable to all Astro users.

Maybe even considering subscribe to the VIP+TV service in case Astro adds Sooka app for smart TV use on Google play Store.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Feb 23 2023, 05:47 PM

It is time for RTM channels to be added to all platforms for easier access.

And upgrade to HD for TV1/TV2 on the unifi platform.

RTM continues to forget Unifi viewers (no TV Okay, no HD!) I understand that certain sports may be blocked because of no rights (the rights only cover DTT and RTM Klik) but it is 2023!

Awesome TV and TVS are also guilty too for forgetting Unifi TV viewers!

SUKE TV has forgot both Astro and Unifi TV viewers.

It is not about cost, but making free to air channels available as widely to as many audience as possible! There should be a law making all free to air channels (on MYTV) to be available to all households, at its original form!

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Mar 18 2023, 04:54 PM

Well, putting free to air TV on Astro will guarantee a much wider reach for free to air channels, on both Astro and NJOI platforms. Viewers will be able to tune in easily. NJOI viewers will benefit the most because of additional choice. This is the case of Awesome TV which starts on MYTV DTT first before starting on Astro. Media Prima channels too.

For Cable TV HK case, it is more to losing EPL sports rights. Their income has also been reducing as a result, and they decided to close their Cable TV business permanently.
They have recently making their news channel free to watch across the DTT platform via their broadcast TV subsidiary Fantastic TV and that had lead to speculation before that they will terminate their pay TV business, which is now a truth.

This situation has lead to monopoly of another pay TV service, NOW TV (owned by PCCW group, which also owns VIU) in Hong Kong. Despite the monopoly, they have to bid hard to keep their sports rights and there are a lot of competition these days, including Netflix, Disney+ and TVB's OTT streaming service MYTV Super (TVB has terminated their traditional pay TV business in 2017 and move into OTT delivery mode.)

As Feliex said, Cable TV is notorious for their service practices, which can be very hard to cancel. Someone had brought knife to one of their outlets and hurt some staff there just to be able to terminate their service!

For the case of BBC news services merger, it is a result to the long term severe budget cuts, that affect the BBC at a whole. They are also funding more services with the same licence fee over the years. The UK government had froze the licence fee for many years, forcing them to cut services in UK and abroad.

BBC also have to get creative to purchase the entirety of their commercial TV arm in UK (UKTV) by using cash, taking up debt, sold some channels and making deal with Discovery. UKTV generates substantial commercial income to fund the licence fee gap BBC had been faced in recent years.

Next year, BBC Four, CBBC and BBC Radio 4 Extra will close and moved online as a result and they had moved BBC Three to online before, only to be revived as a TV channel again recently last year.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Mar 19 2023, 12:43 AM

On their press release, they said they would provide English, Malay and Chinese subtitles.

Instead viewers are "slapped" with Indonesian subtitle on the "Malay" option and English subtitles is missing...

Nobody is complaining to TVB or Astro for this matter?

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Jun 23 2023, 10:47 PM

In my neighborhood, not many people has a dedicated fibre internet connection at their home, even when the infrastructure is readily available.

Instead many relied on those cheap 4G or 5G data plans as the mobile signal is very good here. When I asked why they didn't install fibre, they said that it is worth only for large households/they live themselves/too expensive. The experience can be very poor during certain periods - and that's the reason why I am installing fibre internet at home when it becomes available on my area.

My uncle who didn't install fibre internet at their home - despite having the choice to use TIME/Unifi at their area, said nobody is using the internet at home during daytime - and don't want to waste money at that.

A lot of households here (I live in a predominantly Malay neighborhood) have some sort of Astro access or maybe using terrestrial TV.

Meanwhile, in a Chinese village nearby, almost everyone have fibre internet that a family friend can't install fibre internet at their home until very recently because the port is full.

Those using Unifi TV are a small minority here, despite the attractive lineup, given out that I didn't see a lot of households having fibre installed. Not to mention the competition from illegal TV boxes and legal OTT TV services too.

Astro will still remain relevant somehow for those people without fixed internet access.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Sep 9 2023, 11:14 PM

Astro kinda deserve this result. They have been doing monopolistic practices and it bites them back.

Thanks to their competitors Media Prima, Unifi TV and various legal/illegal OTTs are eating Astro's viewing share day by day with more attractive deals/lineup.

Media Prima has stabilised these days - with record high TV ratings and under the new management, more radio stations/services to compete with Astro.
Unifi TV attractive bundling helps too - and those OTTs are offering relevant content.

This has forced Astro to begin price cutting, excessive bundling and cutting channels.

Astro have been doing stupid things with demonising Android TV boxes (as we said - TV boxes can be legal if used with Unifi TV/legal OTT sources). Channel cutting and giving out exclusive rights has been ongoing as a result of revenue losses due to cord cutting to Unifi, MYTV, OTT services as people are unsatisfied with Astro (Ads, rain fade, recycle content, overpriced...)

They only suddenly start to offer their traditionally expensive packages on cheap due to competition.

The only thing that saves Astro is their sport rights and their local content.

I don't know if this is relevant to this thread, as Sooka is part of Astro.
When one are streaming live TV/FAST channels over Sooka, you will notice that they are capping to 480p these days. The reason is Astro needs more income nowadays to stay afloat (you can notice the trouble they are facing these days), and of course by using lower quality, they encourage those who do care about the quality to pay for their streaming service (and save bandwidth in the progress). However, if you stream one of the in house Sooka channels, you will notice that piliarboxing + letterboxing is used on them. You won't notice any problems on their in house channels/RTM/some third party FAST channels. I don't really understand what Astro is doing here.

Note that the problem does not happen on HD streams of the relevant channels (which are exclusive for paying subscribers).










This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Mar 20 2024, 07:17 AM

Mobile phone, no subscription (free version). You can now stream up to 1080p on mobile if you have a correct subscription for Sooka (Premium RM50.90/month including 8% tax - this is the only package that allowed streaming in 1080p and also on TV).

However, these days Astro defaults free viewers to a measly 480p stream on Sooka - which for me, looks quite poor. 720p/1080p is now reserved for their paying customers, which is understandable giving Astro's current situation.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Mar 20 2024, 08:01 PM

I will still want to complain for piliarboxing + letterboxing though. It looks insane in 2023.

This kinda explained why the rating of 8TV is now on its record high (more than half of total Chinese viewing is on 8TV - and 8TV has a clear monopoly of it's category in FTA market) + the migration in general to legal and illegal streaming services.
Based on past records, adoption of Astro has always been generally lower on the Chinese population.

Even then, Astro's adoption is in decline across all races thanks to MYTV (what's the point of using Astro if you are going to watch just TV3?) + Unifi TV + legal and illegal streaming. Sometime ago, Astro was claiming 80% penetration (and maybe 70%+ penetration.)

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Mar 23 2024, 07:34 AM

Given the shocking development, it is very possible that Unifi TV viewers may soon have the access to TVB channels in the future, excluding Astro branded channels such as AOD/Wah Lai Toi VOD (at least for Ruby Plus, Family, Ultimate packages)

Also, the adoption of Astro services among the Chinese population are generally lower than other races thanks to those illegal/legal TV subscriptions, Astro might be doing so to attract more subscriptions from there.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Apr 1 2024, 06:13 PM

https://rxtvinfo.com/2024/watching-euro-202...are-of-the-lag/

Well, live satellite is still the best way to enjoy sports.
A research has find that there is a huge latency on sport events when streaming live online (up to 45 seconds or even more), especially when compared to linear platforms.

Since more and more people are moving to internet only (because it is cheaper/cut costs), more people are in risk.

Using OTT such as Sooka/online streaming/Astro via internet (not dish), the lag can be huge (in severe cases, almost 1 min if using Unifi TV on app)

If this is the case, then TV3, TV9 and Didik TV will also be off air on Astro.

The picture quality is so blurry (that doesn't look like proper 576i transmission). Astro sabotaging their viewers (and the No.2 most watched channel in the country) so their viewers (Astro or NJOI) might choose or pay for Astro channels with better quality? Misusing their position to sabotage their main, much superior competitor or foul play?

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Jul 2 2024, 05:34 PM

As part of today's coronation of Sultan Ibrahim as Yang Dipertuan Agong, live simulcast is observed across multiple channels (14 way simulcast)

RTM (host broadcaster)
TV1 (the main channel, all the private channels are taking coverage from here)
Berita RTM (English coverage)

All the below channels are taking TV1 feed.
Media Prima
TV3, 8TV, TV9, Didik TV (use regular NTV7 logo) - Media Prima stream this event online on news channels too (also using the feed from RTM)
Suke TV
TVS (picture quality is much lower than other terrestrial channels)
Bernama (own coverage - they removed the tickers for this! - picture quality is much lower than other terrestrial channels)
Astro (Awani own coverage , simulcast on Prima, AEC, Vaanavil and Awani)
TV Alhijrah (own coverage)

Interestingly, Awesome TV is not simulcasting this event - provide alternative content just like TV2.

There are simulcast on Salam channel on Unifi TV too.

I am unsure about it - but this is also the first time for me I see English coverage on such official events on RTM.

And I don't know why the commercial networks aren't able to provide their own cameras and instead taking the feed from RTM, adding additional delays.
Media Prima and Astro definitely have the means and experience to provide their own coverage for such events - but it cost them money - so they defaulted to RTM's visuals.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Jul 20 2024, 11:44 AM