No Astro?? No Problem...Youtube Kan Ada...

It's been more than a month for us living without watching Astro. The boys have been watching cartoon on DVD alternating with the mother. Who says we can't live without Astro? I myself finding it quite an experience spending more time watching contents from the Internet. And that explains why I'm actively blogging again!!!

I can't wait until this country has another broadcaster besides Astro. Like any other monopoly companies, profiteering is their one and only ambition. Oftenly customers are forced to accept whatever level of service provided as there's no other alternatives to choose. True that most of the content already belongs to Atsro, to me, this is not an issue. Content is the important pulling factor, but other differentiating strategies can be deployed to be competitive.

I wish that movies, sitcoms or programmes could be on-demand so that I can watch whatever I want and whenever I want. I don't want Astro to control my daily schedule but instead, I want to have control on the programmes. We, the customers determine what and when we want to see from TV. The technology to do this is already here and I think TM is conducting some trials with some of their customers in Penang. With IPTV (an IP based TV platform), the experience of watching TV would be more interactive and personalised.

The Americans seems to have everything in abundance, including time to watch TV....

Like any other industry in Malaysia, the government's role is to ensure that the long term interest of the end users are met. Usually, to do this, government tends to break down monopolies to create competition with the intention of improving quality of service and keeping prices low (but not necessarily affordable). In Malaysia, when the government liberalised the telecommunication industry way back in mid 90's, we saw how other players came into the picture and compete for customers.

We Malaysians benefited substantially. Although I do have some reservation in this, but in general, today we are constantly being offered and bombarded with attractive call prices and packages. However, for too long, we are being choked with basic voice and sms offers.

My question is, how can the government effectively create the same competitive market in the satellite broadcasting industry. Some might argue that the market is too small for other players to co-exist and the infrastructure cost would be astronomical for the new entrant. Well, there's one obvious solution for this barrier of entry. Tell Astro to open up their network and let other players leased their capacities.

New entrants wouldn't have to invest huge money for infrastructure but instead leased unused capacities from Astro. As for content, I think there's enough out there to feed viewers appetite. Malaysia has the most diverse viewing profile compared to other countries. Multi ethnicity and religious background brings about different content viewing preferences.

There's a need for content to be more specialise and specific to meet different market segment requirements. The future of media business is to sell more of less. Today, if I want to watch big movie hits, I've got plenty of options to do so including Astro. But if I want to watch something very specialise and specific like how to play badminton like a pro, I would go to youtube. Youtube is an example of how future of business should be. Selling more of less. Even when there's only a single viewer, the video is still on the cyber-shelf to be viewed.

Are we ready for triple play services?

I'm blogging about this tonight because I think we seriously need a competitor for Astro. The fact that I can't choose any other satellite broadcaster, democratically, it's like denying my rights to 'vote'. To beat a monopoly, the new entrants would require assistance from the government. The government must provide market and regulatory mechanism that creates a level playing field for the broadcasters.

However, it is crucial that they only do this with the customer's interest in mind. I hope that the convergence between TV and IP services would happen fast enough to break the dominance of satellite broadcasting in Malaysia. Just Imagine when the current Astro decoder is replaced with your computer's CPU as your lifestyle changing technology. The value it can create for the business community is immense as customer's interaction and engagement would be taken to a new level.

Until the arrival of this new media, I need to find my Astro card. We still haven't found it. If I call Astro for a new replacement card, I'll be charged for it for sure. But so far without Astro, no problem for me at least. I'll just stick to youtube while the kids are happy watching Transformers movies and cartoon repeatedly. We have many cartoon version of Transformers collection by the way. Gosshh..I'm surprised how this missing card inspired me to blog!!