ASTRO PRICE STRATEGY

SBSF 2133
PRICING DECISION

INDUVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC: ASTRO PRICE STRATEGY
NAME: FATIN NAZURAH BINTI MOHD NOH

NO. METRIC: A18HA0040
LECTURER NAME: MAZILAH BINTI ABDULLAH

CONTENTS PAGES
3-8
NO CONTENTS 8-10
1 1.0 Profile its pricing practices, strategy, 10-12

organization and implementation. 13
2 2.0 Why has its competition not been able to mimic its

success?

3 3.0 one company that should follow the practice of
smart pricing by critiquing the current pricing
practice of the company.

references

1.0 PROFILE ITS PRICING PRACTICES, STRATEGY, ORGANIZATION AND
IMPLEMENTATION.
Astro is Satellite Television and Radio Operator. Astro is first Malaysia satellite and paid
television service provider, and has expanded to Brunei and Indonesia. The service is run under
the All Asia Broadcast Center (ABC) located in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. Astro is wholly
owned by MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, under the company Astro Malaysia
Holdings Bhd. Astro broadcasting services are currently not limited to paid satellites, but also
through IPTV (Astro IPTV) and free satellite broadcasting (NJOI). Astro celebrated its 20th
anniversary on June 1, 2016.

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (“Astro”) is Malaysia leading paid service television
including radio, digital and commerce space. The integrated strength of the product such as
Pay-TV and NJOI provides subscription-free TV service, enable them to serve 23 million
people within 5.7 million households, or 77% of Malaysian households.

Other than that, Astro Radio houses Malaysia provide the highest-rated radio brands across in
all language, available on worldly and recorded 16.2 million weekly listeners, and on digital
with 14.8 million regular monthly streaming meeting. Astro digital brands host 8.3 million
average monthly visitors come from varies multiple entertainment and lifestyle platforms. The
OTT, Astro GO and NJOI Now serve to customers demand to access their select content
anytime, anywhere, across multiple devices.

Go Shop, one of the commerce business expands across TV, online and through smartphone
platforms which have achieved 1.8 million registered customers in Malaysia and Singapore,
organize products to fulfil customers lifestyle needs.

Figure 1: Figure show The Astro product offered

1.1 ASTRO PRODUCT.
Astro go
Astro goes one of the Astro product. Astro Go allows customers to watch Astro shows on
their mobile phone or laptop. It's free to all Astro subscribers. They just need to enter the
details of the customer, and customers can watch Astro anywhere, anytime they want. The
service was created by the Astro team to solve the problems that Astro customers often face
such as channel disconnection during a rainy day and now with the Astro go all family
members can watch their favourite channel.
Astro NJOI
ASTRO NJOI is the first satellite TV service to be introduced in Malaysia in December 2011.
Astro NJOI contains 47 TV and radio channels covering learning, information and
entertainment programs. Astro only charges RM405 including Decoder Plates, Remote
controls, AV / HDMI cable, Satellite cable 15 meters, and Njoi smart card. RM 405 is just a
one-time payment without having to pay monthly like every other Astro package. if a

Customer is interested in subscribing to another channel they only have to pay RM5 for three days.
RM9.50 for seven days and RM30 for a month.
Astro pack
The Astro pack is a monthly paid broadcast. Astro pack divided into four packages, namely starter
pack, value pack, super pack, and super pack plus. The starter pack is the cheapest Astro package at
RM61.32 per month with over 40 channels. The value pack offers over 77 channels for RM80 a
month with a selection of Korean, Bollywood and Sports. the super pack offers over 125 channels for
RM156.76 per month with family favourites, star-studded movies, sports programs and more and the
last is super pack plus package offers all channels for RM178 per month with over 149 channel
Ultra box
The Ultra Box is Astro's most recent age of 4K UHD empowered box with Cloud recording highlight,
upgraded new interface, and a committed UHD channel. Associate the all-new Ultra Box to the web.
Assume responsibility for your diversion and investigate more than 50,000 recordings that are holding
on to be gushed, whenever. Chief League matches and F1 races go to your home now in 4K Ultra-HD
clearness. With the capacity to record the same number of shows as you need at the same time.

The new interface on Astro Ultra Box offers an improved review involvement in a fresh out of the
plastic new look and feel with highlights, for example,
New Home Screen - Everything you see is yours
Find VOD – Discover 50,000 recordings, stream whenever, anyplace

Search - Search quicker and simpler
Play from Start - You missed the beginning? Restart
Stop Here, Continue There - Stop on one screen and proceed on another gadget
Multi-Screen – Stream flawlessly over any gadget
Cloud Recording - Record all the projects you need simultaneously

1.2 PRICE STRATEGIES
Figure 2: The monthly payment including with internet.

Figure 3: The figure below show the price of the Astro package.

PRICE BASED ON VALUE

Astro put the price based on product value.Price based value estimating is characterized
based on the worth that an item or administration can convey to a predefined fragment to the
clients(Hinterhuber, 2008, 42), as worth value put together and evaluating depends on the
advantages that an organization can demonstrate and offer to their clients. Along these lines,
esteem is the most significant main thrust in each business choice as worth spotlights on the
value the potential clients are eager to pay dependent on the advantage offered by the
business.[1][6]

Value-based cost (additionally esteem upgraded evaluating) is an evaluating technique which
sets costs principally, yet not solely, as per the apparent or assessed estimation of an item or
administration to the client instead of as per the expense of the item or correct prices. Where
it is effectively utilized, it will improve benefit by producing more significant expenses
without affecting incredibly on deals volumes.

An advantage is commonly implied concerning accomplishing explicit business objectives.
On the off chance that the offered item or administration assists with accomplishing these
objectives, it is normally esteemed higher. The establishment of significant worth based
estimating is in this way to comprehend the client objectives and the qualities used to
accomplish these goals.[7]

For example, Astro put sport package that is because most of the contents are taken
internationally and disseminate in Asia. Besides that, the sports pack can be integrated into an
incredible pack that competitors do not have such as watching sports game in high definition
(HD) instead of standard definition (SD). To fulfil the local consumers’ taste Astro
broadcasting the local game on the air in the sports so the subscribers’ will get the
contentment by the watch in Next, Astro also offers packages that come with wireless
internet packages. Customers can watch not only television but also access the internet. Astro
also offers 4K UHD to provide clear images of 4x, which is brighter than HD. Astro also
provides a free channel for new customers for one month. All customers can record the movie
or drama they want to watch when they have time.

Furthermore, customers can subscribe to payments per view. Pay per view charge of between
RM10 until RM15 for two days of movie viewing on Astro First and Astro Best. This allows
customers to watch the movie they want without having to go to the cinema. Watch their
favourite game live and enjoy it at home without any interruption package.

The way to pay is based on the package they subscribe. Customers can also subscribe to
additional packages such as movie buddle and sport buddle for RM 70 and RM 80.
Customers can also subscribe to specific channels they want that are not in the package. For
example, they can subscribe Astro Super sport for RM5.50 for three days, RM9.50 for seven
days and RM30 for a month. Customers can choose whether to have monthly, quarterly, half-
yearly or yearly bill. The statement could be efficiently sent via email to avoid the hassle of
the paper bill. Astro customer can make payment via multiple channels such as Online
Banking, Jom Pay, Auto Debit registration and e-Pay counter at the nearest location with the
services.

In conclusion, Astro offers customers based on value price. Astro make sports packages more
expensive because they have to broadcast sports competitions on the air. Astro charges
customers based on value such as package customer subscribe, pay-per-view channels
offered, and 4K UHD picture quality and can watch movie or film anywhere and anytime
they want.

2.0 Why has its competition not been able to mimic its success?

First, product differentiation is a marketing strategy used by the company to make their product different
or unique than other competitors. Product is differentiated offered based on product standard, services,
position, and pricing strategies (Tey, 2012). Astro makes it different by using bundle package which
consists of internet broadband and IPTV package. For Chinese consumers, Astro offers them Super
Pack plus 3, Super Pack 3 and Wah pack. For India consumer, Astro also offers Super Pack plus 2,
Super Pack 2 and Namma pack. While for Malay consumers, Astro delivers offers with Super Pack plus
1, Super Pack 1 and Nilai pack. Astro also provides a different broadband plan for a different level of
internet users, which are 10mbps, 20mbps and 30mbps (Astro, 2017). Each of the targets of the
packages on a different type of consumer with different preference, income, race and location (Agarwal,
2017).
Besides, the monopolistic competition market has a low barrier to entry and exit the market. Low barrier
shows that company only need to have the capital so they can get into the market to a start-up business.
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) industry is the low barrier in the market. IPTV industry is under
the sector of the network service provider. The company have to apply for a license from the
government, which consists of two kinds which are individual license and class license (Malaysia
Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2017). The requirement to apply for this license they
need to pay up for RM50, 000 (Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2015). Astro

Only needs the low requirement to enter the IPTV industry as they need to pay for RM50, 000
to get the license. Under this kind of market, the firm can get a supernormal profit in short-run
but only average profit in the long run. However, when a company face economic loss, they
can abandon the market easily. In short-run, Astro gets extraordinary profit because it will enter
a new market with the new target consumers. in the long run, it will only get an average profit
as their new customers will become normal subscribers. eTV starts to launch on 26 January
2010, and ABNxcess launched on 8 June 2013 which known as Asian Broadcasting Network
(M) Sdn Bhd, all of these firms get into the market easily because of the low barrier of the
market. However, eTV left the industry in July 2012 because they facing loses in this market
and left the market in August 2016.

Next, a large number of buyers and sellers are one of the features of monopolistic competition.
Buyers are individuals who purchase product or services provided, while sellers are the firms
that produce or offer a product that calls as producer or manufacturer. In the IPTV industry,
various competitors such as Hypp TV, Netflix,Iflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll,
Indieflix, Viu, Google Play Movie&TV, Happy IPTV, and Family IPTV. According to
Communication & Multimedia Fact 2016, the house broadband penetration rate in Malaysia is
77.9% or 7.57million, which is 5.89million, and all of these are the possible consumers for the
IPTV industry.

Moreover, one of the features of monopolistic competition is a price maker. Price maker means
that a company can decide whatever prices of goods they want because they do not close
substitute in the market. So, monopolistic competition market has more monopoly power on
their price than perfect competition market but lower than the monopoly market. Astro offers
the price based on its package customers choose. Astro set its Super pack plus between
RM188.68 to RM241.68, Super pack from RM154.76 to RM172.78, Value pack from
RM84.80 until RM113.42, and the Family pack is RM42.35.

Furthermore, non-price competition happens as a usual situation in monopolistic competition
market. The non-price competition consists of advertising and focuses on a promotion that
highlights its feature of products. Astro promoted its company in several ways, such as
collaboration with the government, an international multimedia company and sports
association. Astro collaborates with Ministry of Health, Malaysia Army Forces and Projek Hati
Nurani to provide learning system to sick kids in 76 pediatric wards, child’s oncology wards
and School-In-Hospital classrooms for those who unable to school. Besides, Astro also

Partnered with Badminton Association of Malaysia and Fetch TV from Australia to broadcast
badminton competition and eGG Network, which makes it the first eSports and gaming
entertainment channel in Malaysia. Besides that, Astro conducted corporate social
responsibility such as Astro Scholarship Awards to undergraduate students to further their
study at higher education and
Astro Kasih Knowledge Zone that provides 25 charity homes under the Welfare Department
with a mini library and books. Corporate social responsibility can give a good image for the
consumers
3.0 ONE COMPANY THAT SHOULD FOLLOW THE PRACTICE OF SMART PRICING BY
CRITIQUING THE CURRENT PRICING PRACTICE OF THE COMPANY.

unifi is a paid television broadcast under the telecommunications company Telekom Malaysia Was
introduced on March 24, 2010, as hypp tv and changed to unify on January 18, 2018. In my opinion,
one company that should use price strategy Astro is unifi. This is because the unifi package and Astro
offer the same price of RM129, including television broadcasts and 100 Mbps wireless internet.
However, customers prefer Astro because Astro offers more attractive television programming with
over 40 channel family pack. In contrast, Unifi offers customers whether to choose Aneka plus pack,
vernam plus pack or Ruby plus pack. Besides, Astro offers a pay per view package will pay additional
charges Rm5.50 for three days of broadcast, RM9.50 for seven days of broadcast and RM30 for one
month per broadcast channel. Astro then offers RM10-RM15 movie for three days of viewing. Astro

offers a discount during the special day which customers got all channel for free. Unifi is backwards
because Unifi does not have coverage in all areas of Malaysia and offers less attractive channel.

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REFERENCES

‘Astro product and service’. Retrieved from https://www.astro.com.my/
Andrew Bloomenthal (2019)’Value -Based-Pricing’, Investopedia, retrieved from
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/valuebasedpricing.asp
Dawam, Z. A., Sareya, R., Bianus, A. B., Hisham, M. F., & Ali, S. (2015). Monopoly in
malaysia television market: Effect on Malaysian film producers. Humanities and Social
Sciences Review, 4(3), 297-304.
‘Monopolistic Competition Market Structure with Astro Company’. UKESSAYS. Retrieved
from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/monopolistic-competition-market-
structure-astro-7112.php
‘Unifi support’. https://unifi.com.my/personal
Raftery, J. (2013). Value based pricing: can it work?. Bmj, 347, f5941.