Astro Monopoly the Market

ASTRO Monopoly the Market

 by Arlenne Vanessa Goh(0311000)

                As we all know, Astro is a Malaysian direct broadcast satellite Pay TV service that has been in service since 15 years ago. ASTRO which stands for All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator is the only cable and satellite TV service operating in Malaysia. It transmits digital satellite television and radio not only to Malaysia, but also Brunei and other countries as well.  In addition, their services are not only limited in serving consumers in households but has substantive coverage in commercial establishment such as hospitals, hotels, bars and restaurants. They have been upgrading their services from 8-radio stations and 22-television channels to satellite broadcasting form of program for general used 5-satellite television channel used to translate Malay, English, Chinese, Cantonese and Tamil in various channels, then few years later adding another 20-saV service. In 2007, they have introduced another new near-video on demand channel featuring the latest TVB dramas from Hong Kong and also Australian Network to their platform. A total of 31-satellite television channels have been apportion for this new service. Two years later, they started bringing in new pay television packages such as Mustika pack. As for the years following it, they have add in Sports channels and international movie channels such as AXN, iTV Granada, and National Geographic. On 2010, they have presented the first High Definition (HD) broadcast in Malaysia under the brand name Astro B.yond followed up by Astro B.yond PVR where you canAstro because of its quality of service and the moderate price charged by themg it difficult for new firms to get into this market.  My opinion is, Astro is a satellite television company which has successfully established its objectives of providing entertainment and a window for Malaysian society to the outside world. Unfortunately to those who are trying to get into the field, it wouldn’t be very easy because Astro has monopolized the industry and has set a high barrier which makes it a lot harder for anyone else to enter. To me, the more companies entering this industry,the more competitive the market in Pay TV service will be in terms of the pricing of services customers will have wider choices.