Astro vs MiTV (War of Malaysian TV)

[NOV]

MiTV, owned by Vincent Tan is getting to be a reality. They have gone on a signing spree, with American, British, Chinese and Indian channels.
For Indians, they will be offering
Raj TV (Tamil)
Raj Digital (Tamil)
Varnam (Local Tamil)
Kairali (Malayala) channel
MAA (Telugu) channel
These will be besides a few others such as mTV India, etc.


Astro, owned by Anandha Krishna, has been only offering local TV station Vanavil - for the last 8 years - with Tamil movies, serials, musicals imported from India, with some sub-standard local productions.
The arrogance of Astro can be seen in one of their FAQ http://www.astro.com.my/v5/customer/faq/:

Q Why isn't there an additional channel for the Indian community?
A Our research shows that the current Tamil content in Vaanavil and Box Office will adequately serve the needs of our subscribers based on their current requirements.

But now, with the imminent arrival of MiTV, astro has decided otherwise! End of February 2005 will see the following new channels:
Sun TV
Kay TV
Surya TV (Malayalam)
Gemini TV (Telugu)
Vaanavil (existing)

Talk about surya namaskaaram after becoming blind!

Industry sources say that Astro will charge about RM20+ for the Indian channels, which would mean a minimal fee of RM70+.

In the meantime, MiTV fee would be less than RM100 for ALL 50+ channels - no different structures.

The future looks exciting for the Indian TV viewer in Malaysia, albeit at increased prices.

[saran]

i will go astro la...

samore our man anadha krishnan has bought all the top 5 south indian channels...

[santosh108]

It will be interesting to note the production quality of local station Varnam which seems to be a joint venture with Sinagpore Vasantham central.

[saran]

BTW Its KTV Not KAY TV

[NOV]

samore our man anadha krishnan has bought all the top 5 south indian channels...yeah, it was our man who thot that giving us one channel was more than enough.

It is sad to see Indian businessmen not recognising our purchasing power.

We do spend quite a bit and this was proven by THR - a Malay businessman who saw the potential in Indian business, and depending solely on Indians' purchasing power, took THR to the position of 2nd most listened radio station.

Vincent Tan is next. Do they love Indians? Naaah - they just see the potential

[saran]

Malaysian indian business men's have to wake up...before other guys do....

Will have make the next generation worthy....

[nirosha sen]

Speaking of purchasing power - my one grouse has always been the same - why aren't Indians ever shown in commercials these days???? Even for milk advertisements, Pa!!

And I heard in the grapevine, that Fernleaf's has a major Indian share-holder Pa!! None other than our Datuk Seri Sa. Samy Vellu!! :lol:

[saran]

:lol: lolz....why he's not in d adz?

[NOV]

More news: Varnam will feature documentaries, local dramas and news. At least 8 to 10 hours will be original screenings. Other programmes would be from Singapore and some Tamil-dubbed foreign programmes.

Raj TV, in the meantime, bring its crew to Malaysia for a series on village life in Malaysia.

[saran]

great...i like d singapore "Pulli Val" show

[NOV]

Sun TV will be on Channel 73 of Astro.
Also to be included is a tamil music channel SCV.

Wondering about Sun News. One of the best news channels available.

[RK]

I wonder why do they have to compile all the channels into one miserable channel 73!! :banghead: Meaning are they going to choose the best programmes from all the 5 channels and telecast? I thought that Astro would have one individual channel for each new Indian channels.. :(
Anyway, will the telecast be live, meaning will it be like playing in India and Malaysia at the same time? :huh:

[saran]

for now its al compiled...but by may...when measat 3 goes up....it will be splitted..

[Kavitha Ravi]

I too felt the same.Cramming everything into channel73.
We will be back to square one again.
Little bit of this and that.
Astro thinks by throwing small bones, they can hoodwink the public. :x

[NOV]

yes channel 73 will have abt 5 hours of progs from each channel.

and no. it wont be live.

[saran]

They will be splitting it...