Singapore, 20 March 2009 — Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) announced today that mio TV will premiere its first 24-hour General Entertainment Malay language channel – Astro RIA (Channel 34) on 23 March 2009.
Astro’s first regional General Entertainment channel in Singapore will include top entertainment programmes which have been handpicked from various channels on Astro’s platform. This is to ensure that the Malay-speaking community in Singapore will be able to enjoy the best of Malaysian and Indonesian content as well as Singaporean local content.
The channel is suitable for the whole family, offering a variety of programmes for adults and kids alike, with different genres of movies, dramas, comedies, musicals and infotainment programmes.
In addition to Malaysian and Indonesian content, Astro Ria will also extend its offering to include other non-Malay and other Asian programmes, which will either be subtitled or dubbed in Malay/ Indonesian. To bring Astro Ria closer to the hearts of Singaporean viewers, the programming mix will also include content produced or filmed in Singapore for stronger relevance and appeal.
Programme Line-up
One of the anchor programmes of Astro Ria, Akademi Fantasia (AF) has just started its latest season in Malaysia to much excitement and anticipation. One of the top-rated reality shows in Malaysia, AF has broken all viewership records year after year. Past AF winner Mawi’s albums have achieved six times platinum status, and both Mawi and Vincent Chong (AF winner) have gone on to become household names in Malaysia.
Astro Ria will also broadcast weekday shows of award-winning entertainment talk show Macam-Macam Aznil, hosted by Aznil Haji Nawawi, one of the most popular TV hosts in Malaysia and Astro Ria’s channel icon.
Trek Selebriti, a voxpop entertainment programme hosted by Jimmy Shanley traces local celebrities’ history and stories before they became the stars they are today. Jimmy follows them to meet their families, visit their schools and places at which they worked before they made it big in the entertainment industry.
“We aim to provide a comprehensive selection of entertainment content for the Malay community in Singapore,” said Mr Low Ka Hoe, Director of IPTV Business, Content and Media Services Group, SingTel. “We are confident that Astro RIA’s depth and breadth of content will bring a new dimension of excitement and variety to the local Malay household. Our mio TV customers now have even more quality entertainment from around the region to look forward to!”
Zainir Aminullah, Executive Director of All Asia Multimedia Networks, content aggregation arm of Astro said, “We are grateful for the opportunity to work with SingTel in growing Astro’s presence regionally and in new areas of content marketing abroad with the launch of Astro Ria on SingTel’s IPTV platform. As we are aware of the popularity and keen response for Astro’s programmes in Singapore, we hope to build stronger partnership with SingTel through its open sky policy to reinforce the potential of our premium Malay content reaching a wider network of customers not only in Singapore but across Asia and eventually the world. To this end, we thank SingTel once again for their support and look forward to a successful partnership, moving forward.”
Astro Aruna
Astro Ria is the second channel from Astro to be launched on mio TV. Its sister channel Astro Aruna was launched in October 2008 (Channel 35 on mio TV) and features the best of Indonesian dramas. With first-run premieres of popular Indonesian dramas such as Wah Cantiknya 2, Perempuan, Tersanjung, Kehormatan, Cinta & Coklat, the channel has gained popularity in recent months among fans of Sinetrons (Indonesian drama series). April will see a new Sinetron premiering on Astro Aruna – Mukjizat Allah – starring Anjasmara (Wah Cantiknya 1 & 2, Cinta Indah, Mewarnai Langit) and Indonesian superstar Kris Dayanti.
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About mio TV
mio TV is the innovative digital pay TV service offering from SingTel. Launched in July 2007, the service offers customers value and full flexibility to watch what they want, when they want.
Currently, mio TV offers a total of 59 channels, of which 15 are on-demand channels. Content on mio TV covers a wide range of genres as well as Singapore’s largest range of video-on-demand titles with and High Definition content.
SingTel is Asia’s leading communications group providing a portfolio of services including voice and data services over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms. Together with its regional partners, it serves over 232 million mobile customers in eight markets. For more information, visit www.singtel.com/miotv .
About Astro (Satellite TV)
Astro is Malaysia’s leading multimedia broadcaster and producer of Malay, Chinese, Indian and English language programming content. It owns and operates the only direct-to-home satellite TV service with access to some 11 million viewers in over 2.5 million homes, representing 45% of TV homes in Malaysia, making it one of the largest multi-channel TV businesses in Asia. It currently offers over 110 TV channels, including 25 Astro-branded channels of original and aggregated content of various genres in multiple languages. Astro is deeply committed to content localisation through subtitles, voiceovers, local talents and programs that will promote Malaysia on Astro’s global platform. Reflecting our commitment to local content, Astro increased our in-house production to over 1,700 hours of entertainment, information and news programmes in 2007. The service also provides a range of interactive TV content and services.
Astro is the trademark of Measat Broadcast Network Systems, a subsidiary of ASTRO All Asia Network plc. The Group operates out of the All Asia Broadcast Centre, a fully-integrated digital broadcast and production complex in Kuala Lumpur.
http://www.Astro.com.my/
For media queries, please contact:
Florence Ang
Red Dawn Communications
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Email: florence@reddawncommunications.com
Tricia Lee
SingTel
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Email: tricialee@singtel.com
Tammy Toh
Astro
Tel: +603 9543 6688 ext 2046
Mobile: +6012 322 5184
Email: tammy_toh@Astro.com.my