Euro 2012 - Second Take.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that pay satellite TV Astro has suddenly decided to extend all its channels to its “basic subscribers” like me. Yes, all its channels. Since its for free, lets hope it will last.

This must be a new marketing strategy by the monopoly at a time of facing a fresh impending competition and dwindling subscribers. To football fans this could be a bonus in the midst of the Euro 2012 competition in Poland-Ukraine.

I have posted in my blog in Malay my outlook of the running-commentary of the competition on offer at the “basic channel” 801 in Malay. I commended Astro for its patriotism in the usage of the national language. Now with this new marketing strategy I am beginning to have my doubt.

Astro are using a few extra channels to focus on Euro 2012 on “High Definition” (HD) in English with strong following. Of course those subscribers without HD will have to fall back on 801 but with the new opening they have the choice of changing channels. I may be one of them now that I have choice.

This should be a wakeup call to those friends who are working hard to make 801 a likeable channel before their fans abandon them. I hope what I have posted would get their attention. I am quite happy to note that there are some improvements in the running commentary from an “off tube” position since my posting. I hope they continue to improve.

The crux of the matter on this new strategy is that not many of us realised that this could be taken as a measure to gauge the popularity of its channels by Astro. Astro can do it because it controls its channels via computer. It will know at certain time which channels are being watch.

So my friends at 801 has got to be vigilante on this to make sure your viewers, like yours truly, don’t “zap” to the new HD channels that are made available now.

 To those who got the new toy, happy viewing.