ASTRO...

Before ASTRO, TV entertainment was kinda like dead. There was a time when those lifeless days moved so darn slow and the weeks and months moved like they could never end. The only thing to do was to read or listen to radio. Permit me to take you back to those retro years when TV was all I had to entertain myself with. And it did not go down well with me for the sole reason - TV was entertainment nightmare and in many ways I never really fancied watching TV either.  

Back then it was all about black and white programmes on TV. I could never imagine TV in colour. Imagine watching sitcoms like Hawaii-5-O, Buck Rogers, Ultraman and many more in black and white plus with a snowy screen. I even remember watching the first lunar landing on black and white TV (tho’ this was proven as a coy / bluff by the Mythbusters on ASTRO).

For many in those days, TV was all about munching fingernails and constantly looking at the wall clock for the transmission hour to come on. To me that was the most exciting thing I ever watched - watching others waiting. Goshh! life was boring then. TV was just about all of that for a good many 20 years or so. We had a TV alright but there was a problem. The reception was bad. When it rained, that's the end of TV for the day. How my family and many others craved for clear TV receptions those days only the residents of Bukit Mertajam know.

The crude problem was - we lived and still live opposite a hill called Bukit Mertajam. Due to the proximity of the hill and the nearby housing estates, TV receptors were not good neither tall enough to harness TV waves. The hill was partly to be blamed. After fruitless complains, angry residents erected tall steel rods above their houses just to get an hour of clear reception. When the rains came, which on any given day, it will rain “cows and goats”, the owner will find the rod twisted and collapsed as winds just blew away anything dangling above roof tops. So, for all, TV was merely an idiot box to decorate the house and have a flower vase with plastic flowers on it. TV was also the yardstick for many women to show off their crochet and embroidery talents. All sorts of fabric will be put on the TV to show-facade. TV was nothing more than a box until ASTRO arrived.

ASTRO stunned and churned out a new set of TV nerds and geeks and of course 'couch potatoes.' It paved way for a new generation of cable TV viewers as well. In the beginning, it was like the Internet at your finger tips and the price was a bomb then. Many eager and frustrated residents subscribed to ASTRO and paid hefty sums to watch good programmers as what many Malaysians had craved for. I too wanted to do the same but the fees were way too high a price to pay. All I did was get entertained by ASTRO from any Mamak stall. With a glass of teh-tarik, I get ASTRO for the whole duration of the teh-tarik - sip by sip.

When all was nice and ASTRO being the craze amongst many, there is a downside to this as well. ASTRO isn't all that ASTRO rosy after all. It was and still is shortchanging its customers. Some of the programmers are reruns and old. Since it is owned by one single entity, ASTRO is monopolizing the TV entertainment industry to its fancies.

For example - almost all sporting rights are bought over by ASTRO. And I do know ASTRO paid a colossal sum of money to buy EPL screening rights too. This isn’t fair to those who can't afford cable TV and also to those who still rely their trust on the good old TV programmes from Angkasapuri. To monopolize the mainstream sporting and entertainment industry by one single entity is how greed is spelt.

The subscription to ASTRO is not justified either. Many pay to watch redundant programmes. Why do we have to pay for something we can’t possibly understand what more watch? Why can't ASTRO charge its customers by the choice of programmes one wants.

Yes, I do agree...there are programmes in ASTRO which are worth more than the money you pay, but it's only a selected few. What about the loads of programmes that makes nonsensical at all?

I mean, see it this way - why would Hindus watch loads of crap Chinese programmes and the same likewise. It all comes with the subscription and as a customer,  you don't get to choose either.

ASTRO have  Arabic programmes as well. I believe this is to entice the few Arabs who live and make their home here and for the tourist too. But these programmes  are forced upon those who don't need them. Which only the Malays watch tho many can’t speak read nor write Arabic. But they're made to subscribe to all those crappy programmes. Can't they be exchanged to other channels of choice.

Then comes the adverts. Why must cable TV subscribers watch adverts? By way of subscription, are we paying for the adverts too? I don't think we should. But ASTRO screens all those adverts when we pay ONLY to watch ASTRO programmes.

Disgruntled subscribers have countless times called in to ASTRO to complain and many or almost all were told off by the rude bastards manning the call -centres.

One ASTRO staff when called said, “If we don’t show adverts, we can’t sustain the ASTRO industry.” Then he continued without the caller asking, "If you don't like close your TV la."

I DO HOPE ANANDA KRISHNAN READS MY BLOG...

And the other part to this - they're many entertainment billionaire moguls our there. My question is, "Why should there only be ASTRO? What has come about the other cable TV networks?"

If they're more than one cable TV in the country, not only the fees but having it will be a healthy competition. But then more adverts will be shown too. Either way you look into it, the viewers are the real losers. They'll need to suck it up to ASTRO and the ASTRO idiots will have the last laugh.