That survey is selected to some of the customers only.
What I meant is, make it conjunction with this upcoming free channel preview...

What? So they're planning to introduce all new packs again soon?

HAHAHAHAHA... 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I like that they use the word "confuse customers" in the news article, which is brutally honest in my opinion.

So, it seems to suggest that moving forward there will only be 3 packs? And the lowest price one is around RM40-50?
If yes, then Malay, Chinese, Indian? Then which race will get the around RM40-50 price? 🤨
I don't think the 3 packs will be based by ethnic...

Or Basic, Sports, Movies?
Or what if I want both Sports and Movies? What If I only want Entertainment but don't want Sports or Movies?
Or, they will just make almost everything as add-ons, similar to Kids, Korean, News & Documentaries, where you just add it up separately according to your liking? How about streaming apps?
Hmmm ok... I wonder how are they going to repackage everything

I remember back then when they introduced the new packs in 2021, there were no such thing "Plus Packs" like Movies Plus Pack, Sports Plus Pack, and then later on, they quietly introduced Premium Pack 4, Premium Pack 5 and Platinum Lite out of nowhere.
I doubt that they will stick with their "3 packs" for long... Sooner or later they might introduce a few number of new packs again, similar like what they did back then, in the name of "strategic business decision".
Imagine now is 3 packs, then few months later, another X number of new packs, and then another X number of new packs few months later....
Why add new packs, you ask? Then they would say because the current packs "isn't performing well" so they introduce new packs to "cater those audience"...
And then few years later, they will have almost 15 packs like what we get today, in the name of confuse customers 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Deja vu?
And then they announce, oh, we're going to introduce all new refreshed packs again, and then discontinue all the old ones.
Then the cycle repeats itself. If they're happy doing this, then....
If this really happens, then I feel like they seriously lost direction already.

Anyway, I think it's going to be "interesting" moving forward... Will see...
If their ARPU is the concern, they could also push more customers to subscribe to Astro Fibre, then that could ramp up the ARPU numbers already.
Also, combine all revenue collected from NJOI and Sooka... I believe this is what they've been doing today.


This post has been edited by joshhd: Aug 14 2024, 12:20 AM

No.
If you're interested to watch this, just watch it elsewhere.

All Olympics channels (CH780-789) has gone. Didn't expect they remove it that fast...
Bye bye...

Btw, the national-month-themed popup channel KITA on CH100 is up.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Aug 15 2024, 01:58 AM

They haven't say how would the 3 packs works, so...
And they didn't say when they'll launch it also... But since that piece of information has flowed through whatever research house and now on a news article, then I guess it's won't be too long from now, probably by end of this year, or early next year?

Will see...

Astro has opened up all Chinese channels to all Astro customers since 1 April 2024. Meaning, you no longer need to purposely subscribe to Chinese related packs/addons anymore to access all Chinese related channels like Astro Hua Hee Dai.

More info here: https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...#entry109501354

How much are you paying per month now?
You mentioned Sports Pack, but are you on the legacy pack or the new pack version of Sports Pack? If not sure, do share a screenshot of your Astro bill, page number 3.

If the cable is still usable, then you can actually keep it as a spare.

But if it's too old, dirty or not in good condition, you can dispose it to the e-waste bin.

Since you wanted Sports Pack, then the one that you have now, is already the lowest price possible.

Do you need Astro GO+? It gives you 4 concurrent streams and a total cloud recording hours of 1500 hours.
If you don't need that, you can contact customer service to remove it.

Supposed to end in April 2024
From which Astro bill month onwards that you realise that the 'ending date' is no longer April 2024?
Is it from May 2024 onwards? Because Astro discontinued the contract auto renewal rule starting May 2024.

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...ost&p=109707353

If in doubt about why the 'ending date' extended itself, contact customer service.

Then, in Feb statement, it became 2026
Eh... Then I don't think this is related to the discontinuation of contract auto renewal thinggy that happened on May...

Did you do any box related changes between Jan and Feb 2024? If yes, then that might be the reason.
If no, then it might be either some other system glitch on their end. or it could be something else.
I suggest you contact customer service and clarify with them why your contract period extends itself to 2026 since your Feb 2024 statement.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Aug 16 2024, 01:53 AM

You're willing to give up your Sports channels?
Then downgrade to the lowest tier, Primary Pack RM59.99, and you'll get another fresh 24 months contract.

When calling customer service to downgrade pack, they'll ask why you wanna downgrade, so just be nice and give good excuse, then do expect that they will propose you some retention offer, whereby if you remain your existing pack, you would get either RM____ rebate for X number of months, and/or free channel preview of ________ for X number of months, or both, at a retention contract period between no contract (0 month, safest option) to 36 months contract (retention contract is totally separate from box contract, and the penalty is way lower than box contract). Up to you to decide whether to proceed or not.

Anyway, according to the news, it appears that Astro may be going to launch all new, new packs soon and there will only 3 packs moving forward, so very likely it'll supersede all "15 confusing packs" that you see today. It also mention that out of the 3 packs, the lowest tier would be priced around RM40-50. More info here: https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...ost&p=110260142

Instead of downgrade to Primary Pack now, I suggest perhaps you wait for a while (maybe few more months?) first? Wait till they launch the 3 new packs, then only decide again? Who knows maybe their 3 new packs may be more attractive/cheaper than today's offerings...
Unless if you have serious financial issues, then different story la

Btw guys, I just realised that the Love Nature (CH549), the 4K UHD channel that were previously not HDR, is now in HDR...

It is likely that they will stick to HLG standard for HDR for linear TV broadcasts for today and the future, for a seamless backward compatibility with non-HDR TVs.

RM221,773 out of RM734,880,000
Go go Astro, you can do it 😂

As previously mentioned: https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...ost&p=110236651

So have you write an email to them about this? What's their reply?

Huh? Where did you get the prices for HBO GO, Bein Sports and BBC Player? Cuz these are available only as bundles in Astro packs, not being sold as standalone.

What are you looking for actually? And what you're trying to compare?

This post has been edited by joshhd: Aug 20 2024, 02:01 PM

It's also to enhance the Astro branding mah... To show that Astro is "doing something" in conjunction to the country's national/independence day.
Then who knows, this could also impress the ruling government of the day?

Its programming of the popup channel may be patriotic-themed, OR like what you said, a dumping ground of Astro's self-produced shows and movies.

Still, whatever pop-up channel will somehow create a buzz, something for the customers to put attention to.

I think that is what they are already been planning to do... Still remember the news where they said they're working on introducing 3 packs that one, and the price range of the lowest pack to start from around RM40-50?

Since they said this in the news, then I believe this is already a work in progress on their end, so it's just a matter of when it'll launch.

Packs and channels is one thing. Enhancing its branding is also another thing they're doing.

This post has been edited by joshhd: Aug 25 2024, 11:06 AM

Seems like RTM has a separate playout for TV Okey channel. Main feed supposedly will be showing live sports events (best example this time will be Paralympics), another feed is regular programming...
At least it's better than the pay TV operator themselves who put up a unwelcoming message, saying that they can't show the content due to broadcast rights, or they replace another TV programme by themselves.
Instead, if RTM would be the one who do the replacement, at least they have control on what is being shown to viewers on pay TV platforms (i.e. Astro/Unifi TV).
And once the live sports event ends (e.g. Paralympics), they would revert back to the main feed...

As in why RTM didn't do this back then... Well, times changed? Perhaps they have better management of resources now.
The broadcast rights for live sports events, like the Olympics, are pretty strict about who can watch them.
For example, if RTM is the official broadcaster, viewers should only watch the events directly from RTM (either through DVB-T2 terrestrial TV or RTMklik online streaming).
If you watch RTM channels through a third-party platform, like from a pay TV provider (Astro or Unifi TV), it depends on whether that provider has paid for the broadcast rights.
If they don't, either party is responsible for blocking or not showing the broadcast on the pay TV platform, whether by displaying a message, replacing it with other programming, etc.
It's more like, they don't see the demand of it and/or viewership is low, hence they don't see it is necessary to pay for broadcast rights for this, hence decided to skip Paralympics instead.
Even Unifi TV don't have that.

Because they don't dare to mess with you

So basically what is happening at the same time is:

Channel(s)	Platforms	Now showing LIVE broadcast of...
TV Okey	Astro & NJOI, Astro GO, sooka	Pestabola Merdeka 2024
TV Okey	MYTV Ch 110, MYTV Mana-Mana, RTMKlik	Paris 2024 Paralympics: Daily Coverage
Sukan RTM	Astro & NJOI, Astro GO, sooka	This channel isn't available on these platforms
Sukan RTM	MYTV Ch 111, MYTV Mana-Mana, RTMKlik	Pestabola Merdeka 2024
Astro Arena & Arena Bola	Astro & NJOI, Astro GO, sooka	Pestabola Merdeka 2024

RTM knows that Astro has broadcast rights for Pestabola Merdeka (as this is also being shown on Astro Arena & Arena Bola channels), but don't have broadcast rights for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Since Astro/NJOI/Sooka has TV Okey channel, so they show the LIVE broadcast of Pestabola Merdeka 2024 instead.

That's a pretty smart planning going on there...

This post has been edited by joshhd: Sep 5 2024, 01:27 PM