The group CEO-designate of Astro shares how Astro has remained innovative and what fans can look out for this World Cup season
Officially joining Astro in April 2020, Euan Smith is set to assume the role of group CEO of Astro Malaysia in February 2023.
“I’ve been in the TV industry for 20 years, and have been in five different markets,” shares the mechanical engineering graduate, who prior to joining the industry, was involved in establishing Solero ice cream by Wall’s at Unilever.
He first got into television with Sky UK. “I learnt a lot at Sky,” shares the 53-year-old, “and then my boss moved to the German branch, and I tagged along to help him run the operations there. My next job was in the US, which was building a completely new streaming service for the Fox Corporation, and later in Australia with Foxtel, helping it turn around through its streaming platform. The natural next step for me was to come to Astro and bring the things I’ve learnt to a very different market.”
Now in its 26th year of its existence, Astro is pivoting from a purely satellite broadcaster to a streaming first aggregation platform, with packaged offerings that include Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix, HBO Go, TVBAnywhere+, iQiyi and beIN Sports Connect on top of providing quality local and vernacular originals so customers can truly enjoy a wide range of entertainment.
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“I think most Malaysians still see Astro as a satellite TV service that gets interrupted by rain,” Smith said. “But we’re so much more different now. The way we’ve set ourselves up is now about streaming and convenience on any screen, not just your regular TV set.
"We used to be about channels, but as the world migrates to streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar and iQiyi, clearly our job is to still give customers the best content which I believe we have with our slate of Astro content and some fantastic sports events. And then we're aggregating all the best of the apps. Astro is no longer what you thought it was. You can get it simply over IP (Internet protocol) now, so you don’t need a dish; the Astro box works under any format. And of course, rain fade is a thing of the past.”