PETALING JAYA: Astro sees the partnership with Netflix and its new subscription pack bundles to be its biggest draw to customers, according to its group COO and pay-TV CEO, Euan Smith (pix).
With the partnership, the pay-TV operator is adding the US-listed over-the-top streamer’s content to its growing list of offerings, in addition to Disney+ Hotstar, HBO GO, iQIYI, TVBAnywhere+.
“It’s all about how to drive more value and how to let each over-the-top streamers do their own thing at their level,” he told the media at the launch of “The New Astro Experience” today.
“We can offer a super aggregation and they’ll receive value from it because of the huge amount of Malaysian eyeballs that we have on our TV screens and boxes.”
To illustrate its proposition, Smith highlighted that with the Disney+ Hotstar it headlines a price of RM5, which is three times lower than the rest of the market and anywhere else.
Ultimately, he conceded, it’s also about content. “If you’re going to put premium high-quality content, Netflix is the one you start with.”
“The volume of high-quality programming they do is second to none. So, we’ll continue to focus on the vernacular contents that we are focusing on at the moment.”
With Netflix’s streaming services, the Astro TV CEO anticipates good subscriber uptake from new subscription packages at attractive prices.
“When we did the whole subscription packages, we looked at what others are charging in the market. So we created a package in a bundle that offers better value than the standalone piece.”
Netflix Asia Pacific’s vice president of business development, Tony Zameczkowski, said it is thrilled to bring an elevated multi-device entertainment experience to more Malaysians.
“At Netflix, our goal is to offer the best-in-class entertainment to our members, and we’re thrilled that through this partnership with Astro, more Malaysians will be able to experience and enjoy our entire catalogue – whether it be Hollywood blockbusters like Red Notice, Spanish series like Money Heist, Korean content the likes of Squid Game, which is a huge favourite among fans in Malaysia.”
Apart from the Netflix partnership, Smith disclosed that Astro recently inked a deal with Telekom Malaysia Bhd which allows it to take the first step to be its own internet service provider.
“When we build that, it allows us to offer differentiated service, whether that differentiation is through the product or pricing and also enables us to control the whole customer service experience inside the Astro tent,” he said.
