Consumers have benefited a lot from the stiff competition in the airline and telecommunications industries, and there is no valid reasons why this should not be happening in the satellite TV sector
ASTRO, which holds a monopoly in the country’s satellite TV market, is free to set any price it chooses to, leaving the consumers with no choice but to take it or leave it.
With an estimated massive subscriber base of more than one million households and businesses in Malaysia, ASTRO has been raking in huge profits ever since it started operation in a competition-free environment.
Now firmly established in the consumer electronic environment, its continued growth in programming would ensure it continues to enjoy strong demand and high profitability.
However, it is widely felt that the time has come for consumers to enjoy the benefits from healthy competition in the satellite TV industry, and this means ending the monopoly by ASTRO.
The government should review ASTRO status and consider opening up the satellite TV market to other operators. In the absence of competition, ASTRO is free to set any price and it would usually set the price that yields the largest possible profit.
If within the airline and telecommunications industries, the Government allows competition to exist, then there is no valid reason why it doesn’t open up such industry to others to compete.
The consumers have benefited a lot from the issuance of licences to new mobile phone service operators since a few years ago. As stiff competition has driven prices down and eliminated monopoly, why not in the satellite TV industry?
Malaysia, which is practising democratic principles, needs to open up for competition for the benefit of consumers. Furthermore, the most important thing for all is the services rendered and competition would result in better services.
I believe ASTRO will raise its prices further. The main reasons for ASTRO increasing its subscription fees two years ago is the high cost in buying TV programs and the rise in production costs.
To me, it is totally unfair to charge consumers for programs that don’t involve current productions such as old materials as shown in the mini packages that are on offered.
Majority of ASTRO subscribers are not happy with the current charges and the packages. I can understand that not everybody is watching every channel that is on offer in the packages provided but what choice do they have?
With the digital system available, the least ASTRO can do is to repackage the whole channels by offering to customers the option to do their own packages, meaning they can choose their own channels or programs in a package by grouping them and only pay for what types of programs that they want to watch at a very reasonable rate.
For example, one channel may cost RM1.50 each ( depending on the category ) and the minimum subscription allowed is for 15 channels. Let us say, for the Sports each channel costs RM2.00 each, Movies RM2.50, News RM1.50, Learning RM1.50 and Family RM1.50.
If a customer chooses three channels from the family, two from Learning, three from News, three from Sports and four Movies, it will only cost them RM28.00 per month. Not only that the advantage is they only spend and pay for the channels they really want to watch.
This way, the consumers would be more than happy even if a small service fee is charged monthly perhaps between RM15.00 and RM20.00 on top of the subscription rates imposed.
The Government should also subsidize or make ASTRO and other future satellite TV or digital TV providers to provide transmission of RTM 1 & 2, TV3, NTV7, TV8 and TV9 free of charge, as a social obligation, to those residents cannot get clear transmission signal from the TV channels, especially those living in rural and remote areas of the country.
In other developing nations, satellite TV providers are offering some commercial and state TV channels free of charge on their satellite TV.
The effect of monopoly by ASTRO in this industry is visible, where in a multi-dwelling residential area, we have yet to see a single dish or a communal dish being installed for the reception of ASTRO programs.
ASTRO should encourage a SMATV system ( Satellite Master Antenna Television Systems ) or recommend an Integrated Reception System for multi-dwelling or condominium buildings instead of installing every unit with its own satellite dish.
They need to work very closely with the local government, developers and existing multi-dwelling owners to provide multi-points in individual dwellings for ready connections. Two factors should also be considered, namely environment and fairness to consumers.
Talking about consumer fairness, if a resident living in a condominium that is facing either North, East or South, the person would be unable to watch ASTRO because the line of sight to the satellite positioned in orbit ( Measat 3 ) that transmits the ASTRO signal back to earth is located at 91.3 degree east.
It looks environmentally awful at a high-rise building with too many dishes erected. ASTRO needs to consider offering their customers with a twin LNB ( Low Noise Block ) for their existing customers to install extra decoders at home instead of installing a new or extra dish.
At present, if a big family wants to have four decoders, they need to erect four satellite dishes ( installers should know how to minimize the visual impact on the building but unfortunately they are not trained ) where it can be done solely on a single dish as it looks better and saves cost.
But because ASTRO monopolize everything from the dish to the decoder, consumers have no choice but to follow and abide by their existing marketing strategy.
Since ASTRO controls the market, they should take the opportunity to inform their customers on the systems that are being installed. In my point of view, almost all of their installers have no basic knowledge of the systems they are installing. A proper training should be done to cover basic technical knowledge, quality and environmental aspects of installations.
The Government should consider issuing new licenses now to allow potential companies to operate a new digital satellite TV system available in the market. It’s a new way to get free digital satellite TV for a one off payment.
Many countries have already introduced these systems, where digital TV and radio channels can be viewed on from a specially made decoder without a subscription or viewing card needed, as the signal is not encrypted. The consumers only need to make a one-off payment to pay the decoder and a one-off subscription fees.
We are aware that RTM are testing its digital services in the Lembah Klang area, this is a good move by the Government. Other TV companies should follow suit but they should consider opting for a free view system or platform.
Free view is the future of DVB-s ( Satellite ) and DVB-T ( Terrestrial ) to replace the existing analogue TV broadcasting.
With the introduction of more digital TV services on the market, the consumer will greatly benefit as more channel choice are available to them and with extra features that are not available on existing analogue systems such as interactive TV, telephone and broadband services.
The bonuses of all, the consumers would have the freedom of choice to choose the best service television provider that would meet their requirements and satisfactions for their family entertainment.
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