Popular and longest running reality talent show, AMERICAN IDOL, has  captured its leading position as the most watched English entertainment programme amongst Singapore viewers. The Season 11 finale, which was broadcast live and exclusively on  Star World, the region’s leading English entertainment channel, registered its highest-rated “Idol” finale ever amongst all cable channels in Singapore for viewers ages 15 to 49*.

Astro and TIME dotCom Berhad (TIME) have entered into a partnership to jointly bring the best of TV and broadband services for the benefit of customers. CEO of Astro, Dato’ Rohana Rozhan and CEO of TIME, Afzal Abdul Rahim today announced the partnership between two of Malaysia’s most recognizable brands in leveraging on each others’ strengths to bring true digital connectivity and an enhanced entertainment experience for customers.



Rohana said, “Since the launch of Astro B.yond in December 2009, we have received huge demand for our High Definition (HD) and Personal Video Recording (PVR) services. Our Astro B.yond services are immediately available to all customers residing in single dwelling units (SDU’s) and progressively for those in multiple dwelling units (MDU’s). Over the last 6 months we have been conducting IP delivery trials, with very positive outcomes. TIME is a partner of choice given their immediate capability to provide 100Mbps to these MDUs, which enables us to deliver an unrivalled value proposition encompassing the very best of Astro B.yond and high speed broadband services, to our increasingly discerning customers. Under this agreement, these services will be made available to 167,000 homes in 730 MDU’s in the Klang Valley and Penang progressively within the next 12 months.”

All this is made possible as the Astro B.yond box is in essence a ‘tri-brid’ set top box, which operates in a Direct to Home (DTH) satellite mode, pure IPTV mode as well as DTH and IPTV hybrid mode.  Astro’s ‘tri-brid’ set top box also enables different Video-On-Demand (VOD) capabilities such as push, pull, or progressive downloads of content, based on the mode selected and relative speed of the underlying network. Customers are then able to view videos in real-time upon request, or alternatively, download video content to a device such as a PVR for later viewing.

Astro customers who sign up for the Astro IPTV service under this agreement with TIME will therefore have 100Mbps bandwidth at their disposal,  to enjoy all Astro B.yond services such as HD, PVR, VOD in multi-rooms, and still have spare bandwidth to support connected devices such as laptops, mobile phones and game consoles on WIFI.
According to TIME CEO, Afzal Abdul Rahim, this collaboration marks a significant moment in bringing multimedia and Internet rich services to Malaysian homes. “TIME’s 100% fibre-based network is the most resilient and stable network in the country that is able to support Astro’s IPTV offering. TIME’s fibre connections run directly into homes, ensuring consistent speeds that are required for IPTV delivery as well as uncompromised Internet quality. This also allows Astro customers to experience the fastest broadband in Malaysia. Our roll-out to homes in the past year has been aggressive and we will continue to keep up the pace in supporting Astro’s IPTV plans. ”

This partnership between Astro and TIME enables Astro to provide its customers the best value possible – with the unbeatable combination of TV, HD, PVR, VOD, Music and high speed broadband. With this proposition, customers in Malaysia can truly expect a transformation of their TV viewing and the home internet usage experience, enjoying the best of a converging world.

Ushering in the new year, MPRN (Fly FM, Hot FM and One FM) has just appointed Elaine Lee as the new Head of Sales effective Jan 1, 2011. Elaine has 9 years experience in media sales and was previously with a satellite TV. She joined MPRN in 2006 and since then she has displayed strong passion and enthusiasm in her work. In her previous role where she was responsible for all media agencies business, she has contributed tremendously to the sales performance of the company.

In her new role, Elaine will be responsible for the overall sales performance for the networks and operations of the marketing team, which includes agency & direct sales team, marketing support and creative marketing.

Arif Mumtaz has joined Vizeum Malaysia  as  Strategic Planning  Director. Arif comes  from a background of 11 years  in international media organizations  ;  GroupM, Initiative Media and Bates Media .He has managed many multinational clients and is a strong leader  with creative and strategic thinking.   His portfolio of clients included  Unilever , Colgate Palmolive, Hutchison Telecom,  SABMiller ,  Nestlé, Philip Morris and McDonald’s.



Arif has delivered award winning work for several clients especially Unilever , in the APAC region. Key achievements that go to his credit are leading the way in the use of marketing mix modeling for communication strategy and development of awareness modeling tools using econometrics. Arif has served in various APAC and Middle East markets. His key strengths are in digital media, econometric modeling, creative thinking and research.

His in-depth understanding of the APAC market and extensive experience in analytics makes him a valuable addition to Vizeum’s operations in Malaysia. Arif  Mumtaz   graduated from Southeastern University Washington D.C  specializing in Marketing with a passion for media and advertising.  Arif enjoys  cricket , tennis, table tennis, football and basketball. Lecturing marketing part time , a unique hobby  of Arif, his last stint was at the International University of Jakarta.

Astro is committed to invest RM10 million over 5 years towards the development of bowling as a competitive and family sport in Malaysia. They entered into a partnership agreement with the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) to promote bowling as a national sporting activity as well as to support the Malaysian National Bowling Team in their aspiration to become sporting heroes. The partnership entitles Astro Arena, Malaysia’s 24-hour local sports channel, to broadcast the Malaysian International Open, Malaysian National and Interstate Championships and all official tournaments organised by MTBC to give our amateur and professional bowlers more exposure.



Henry Tan, Chief Operating Office of ASTRO said, “At Astro, we believe that nothing brings people together nearly as much as sports do.  We are privileged to work with national sporting bodies in developing local sports and in placing Malaysian sporting heroes amongst some of the world’s best sportsmen.”

“Research tells us that bowling is the third most participated sport in market centers after badminton and running. 9% of Malaysian adults between the ages of 15 years old to 49 years old bowl as compared with 13% for football. A good indication of the growing popularity of bowling among Malaysians can be further attested by the 90 and growing bowling centers nationwide, which are usually packed on weekends. Astro hopes to  further popularize bowling by creating new events which are centered around the sport.  Bowling will be bigger with Astro.”

The Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress is the national governing body of the sport of tenpin bowling in Malaysia. Recently, the Malaysian National Bowling Team competed in the Asian Games with Adrian Ang and Alex Liew winning the first gold medal for Malaysia in the Men’s Doubles for bowling.

ESPN STAR Sports continued to make its mark in the creative arena, winning three awards at the recent Promax Asia Awards by clinching the Gold award for the Best Sports Campaign category (Formula One), and sweeping the Gold and Silver awards in the Best Sports Promo category for the Formula One and French Open respectively.



The awards highlight ESPN STAR Sports’ continued commitment to on-air promotional excellence across various categories, heightening its reputation as one of the top awarded organizations in Asia over the years at the PromaxBDA Asia and the Promax/BDA International Awards.

Said Paras Sharma, Senior Director, Marketing & Corporate Communications, “Our channel branding and communication is driven with an aim to get the right message across to a broad spectrum of sport fans across the region while highlighting the key value proposition of our premium sports content. What makes this win heartening and significant is that these promos have not only won accolades from the creative community, but that they have been very focused and synergized with our overall marketing strategy across multi-cultural and multi-lingual Asian markets..”

Continuing its creative and innovative approach to its campaigns, ESPN STAR Sports recently launched two new on-air ads  for its original football programmes, ‘Scorecast’ and ‘Monday Night Verdict’, leveraging on cultural references and popular football personalities in a novel manner.

Scorecast gives football fans the most informed and analytical opinion and predictions on the games and this concept has been brought to life by showing how practitioners of other traditional modes are losing their business with the advent of Scorecast.

The ad for Monday Night Verdict, positioned as the most definitive football programming that gives fans the most candid opinion on the game, reinforces the forthright personalities of it two football pundits Steve McMahon and Shebby Singh through their daily interactions with people from various walks of life.

All the above promos have been conceptualized and produced by the ESPN STAR Sports team.

ESPN STAR Sports’ award winning campaigns at the Promax Asia Awards and the new promos can be viewed below:

•    Gold - Best Sports Campaign category (Formula One)
•    Gold - Best Sports Promo (Formula One)
•    Silver - Best Sports Promo (French Open)
•    Scorecast
•    Monday Night Verdict

ntv7, 8TV, and one FM brought the “Year of the Rabbit” to an all-new high, as the media were given a glimpse of the spectacular Chinese New Year album during the press launch today. This also marks the first CNY album collaboration between the three stations. This special album with its theme – “阖家团圆一起发” (he jia tuan yuan yi qi fa or “The Family Reunion and Prospering Together”) – is set to bring about an auspicious and fun-filled Lunar New Year with its launch on 4th December in all major music distributors around Malaysia.



In a fabulous kick-off ceremony, ntv7, 8TV, and one FM, gave guests a taste of the upcoming album with two of its amazing music videos – “团圆饭” (tuan yuan fan or “Reunion Dinner”) and “快乐１７８” (kuai le 178 or “Happy 178”). The hosts introduced the entertaining line-up of 28 artistes, DJs, hosts, and news presenters who are part of this special CNY album. Fans will be delighted to know that line-up consists of one FM’s Nicholas, Jane, Jack, Kyan, Sumi, Suki, Lucas, and Ryan; ntv7’s Melvin, William, Aenie, Frederick, Leslie, Tiang Kah Chee, Hishiko, Monday, Kyo, and Mayjune; as well as 8TV’s Gary, Owen, Ong Ching Yee, Rickman, Winson, Mei Sim, Orange, Lawrence, and Ultimate Power Group Season 2 winner, Super Bang.

There are 10 songs in the album and since Chinese New Year means all things new, ntv7, 8TV, and one FM will be giving its audience four new songs including – “团圆饭” (tuan yuan fan or “Reunion Dinner”), “快乐１７８” (kuai le 178 or “Happy 178”), “圆圆满满” (yuan yuan man man or “A Fulfilling New Year”), and “彩色新年” (cai se xin nian or “A Colourful New Year”). Other songs in the album include – “财神老爷下凡了” (cai shen lao ye xia fan le or “The God of Prosperity is Here!”) and “桃花朵朵开” (tao hua duo duo kai or “The Blossoming Peach Flower”).

Listeners will also be up for a pleasant surprise as two of the country’s top music composers – Tang Xiao Kang and Zhang Guo Xiang – collaborate in composing all 10 songs, promising a great start to the year! It is also their first time composing Chinese New Year songs, giving listeners a fresh new experience. The song, “圆圆满满” (yuan yuan man man or “A Fulfilling New Year”), is also the theme song for ntv7’s upcoming CNY telemovie – The Super Match Maker, debuting on the first day of Chinese New Year, 3rd February at 10 p.m.

In addition to the stellar performers, fans can also look forward to the slick recording and editing of all the music videos, which were filmed in various places such as Ipoh, Melaka, and Sekinchan. ntv7, 8TV, and one FM have also combined the best Chinese New Year traditions in the album which include amazing props and specially tailored costumes, giving fans a unique feel of Chinese New Year.

The album will go on sale nationwide in all major music distributors on 4th December. To be the first to grab the limited edition CD and DVD CNY album package, and to meet the stars in person, fans should mark their calendars for 3rd December, which is when the album first goes on sale and the stars will be at Bukit Tinggi Jaya Jusco for a special meet and greet session. Fans should not miss this chance to pick up the limited edition for the perfect CNY gift or keepsake. The album will be available in CD, VCD, and DVD format.

For more information on the CNY album, please visit www.ntv7.com.my, www.onefm.com.my, or www.8tv.com.my. Also, follow the latest updates on the album via Facebook and Twitter.

The much-loved programme kicked off on 4th November and is aired across the region every Thursday at 8.00pm on ESPN. The renewed sponsorship illustrates how ESPN STAR Sports has been successful in offering a well-executed marketing solution that is customised for a client in terms of content relevance and presentation to build Castrol’s brand personality with viewers.

Charles Less, Senior Vice-President, Advertising & Digital Media Sales, added, “Castrol recognizes the importance of being associated with one of the region’s most popular football entertainment programmes and the opportunities it offers to further establish their association with football in the market. The partnership aims to continue building a strong connection with football fans across the region, enabling Castrol to reach out to viewers across multiple platforms.”

A.S. Ramchander, Regional Marketing Director for Asia and Pacific Lubricants, Castrol, said, "We are delighted to be the title sponsor for Castrol Football Crazy. As the official FIFA World Cup Sponsor till 2014 in Brazil, we are also gearing up for our next sponsorship of UEFA EURO 2012™ by building our association with the Beautiful Game. We are confident that Castrol Football Crazy is the ideal broadcast platform to communication to football fans and to strengthen our brand’s association with football.”

Castrol Football Crazy’s light-hearted and engaging format takes a unique approach from existing “serious” football shows, and allows football fans the opportunity to have fun and express their point of view. In addition to commercials and on-air billboard branding, Castrol will get very specific customized content on the programme, including a weekly ‘Hot Topic’ segment as well as analysis of Castrol’s proprietary ‘Player Rankings’ system.

Castrol Football Crazy, accompanied with multi-platform engagement, continue to be one of the most popular programmes across the region. Followed by passionate fans who want more than just live football matches, the show drew a viewership of 1.8 million in Malaysia last season, primarily cable male audiences 25-34 years old and 25-49 PMEB and other white collar segments. In India, Castrol Football Crazy attracted 2.6 million viewers, predominantly younger male viewers 15-24 and those with digital cable connections..

Hosted by two new Malaysian presenters, the popular radio disc jockeys Jason Desmond ‘JD’ Chin Yoon Onn, and Adam C, the locally produced Castrol Football Crazy will continue to combine football, humour and entertainment into a fun mix. This season, the show will take to the streets to bolster the theme of engaging fans and football enthusiasts looking for entertainment on the lighter side of sports.  

In addition to Castrol Football Crazy, ESS also produces close to 1,500 hours of original football programming a year, including programmes like Monday Night Verdict, Goals, Chang World of Football, Scorecast, BPL Express, Maxis Football Extra, catering to a wide range of audiences from the serious football fan to the armchair spectator. Please visit www.espnstar.com for the latest updates on programme schedules.