Another milestone for Astro and local sports

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KUCHING: Malaysia’s leading satellite TV provider Astro has taken a challenging step to produce a new local sports initiative under the name of Astro Arena, bringing all local sports events right at the doorsteps of every Malaysian sports lovers.

ON AIR: Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar (seated left) with Astro chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan (seated right) during the signing ceremony witnessed by Youth and Sports minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek (centre). — Bernama photo

ON AIR: Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar (seated left) with Astro chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan (seated right) during the signing ceremony witnessed by Youth and Sports minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek (centre). — Bernama photo

Its birth on March 19 was seen by sports analysts as a revolutionary move in bringing Malaysian sports fraternity to the top-flight again.

Officially on air on March 26, Astro Arena on Channel 801 covered the range of four channels in one, broadcasting mainly in Bahasa Malaysia and aimed primarily at viewers aged 10-40 and delivering 700 hours of live, local sports a year with an extra 2000 hours replay to allow more people to watch.

There will also be an average of 56 hours a week of Malaysians playing sports at international levels.

All this would not have materialised without the contributions of Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Imran has expressed his dream of seeing one sports channel catering for local sports throughout the year.

He said:  “We are happy to be working together with Astro to provide more opportunities for the national sports associations and other local sporting bodies to have their sports news and events viewed by a bigger audience.

“We hope Astro Arena will further boost the growth of local sports and talents.”

Tunku Imran hoped the newly-launched channel would concentrate more on local rising stars instead of current champions.

“It is hoped Astro Arena can cover more local sports to help produce more sports stars,” he said.

The idea of Astro Arena is to build and operate Malaysia’s first and only seven days a week local sports newsroom offering up to five live bulletins a day with some extra weekend and late night replays.

The bulletins will have a round-up of international sports and longer forms of highlights and interviews when warranted.

The latest results will eventually be visible across the bottom of the screen on the Arena Sports Ticker.

Subject to contract negotiations, in the next 18 months, Astro Arena would be showing young Malaysians competing in the SEA Games, the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and the Youth Olympics in Singapore.

The schedule would feature appointment viewing at 8.30 most nights with extended previews, reviews, highlights and discussion programming to build the interest in Malaysian sporting heroes.

Viewers would be encouraged to ‘get into the game’ with an extensive ‘sports for all’ initiative developed with OCM and Ministry of Youth and Sports, using some of Malaysia’s best athletes.

OCM and Astro have signed a memorandum of understanding prior to entering into a strategic alliance as the backbone to the channel’s success.

Astro wishes to cover as many major regional, national and state-level events as possible.

Astro obviously cannot cover everything but if the National Sports Associations (NSAs) were to schedule more than one match or tournament at the same time, some could be recorded for delayed telecast.

Astro also would support the NSAs’ existing naming rights and ground sponsors by offering them attractive on-air packages as a first option to be involved in the channel.

For this effort, Astro Arena would be looking for several ‘foundation sponsors’ to help launch the channel.

Before Astro commits to any broadcast, it would sign a licensing agreement with the NSAs that would include an offer to assist with any international exploitation of the NSAs’ events for mutual benefit.

Other events would be covered as news items and some as extended highlights in Astro’s magazine support programming but only if Astro knows of the events.

For the commitment to broadcast the channel on air as it was in line with any sports events, Astro has started investigating a new calendar database that would allow every NSA to input their events or provide details for OCM to input, which could avoid too many clashes between major events across the calendar.

Eventually, Astro hopes the calendar would be available via the Internet for the individual fan to see what is on in his or her area.

Astro has an on-line and mobile presence – Stadiumastro.com that would include news, chat, blogs, commentator columns, results and user generated content from local and international sport.

There would be ‘click thru’ visibility to the NSAs’ web sites and Astro would eventually build a community on-line presence that the NSAs could use if they do not support a website now.

So the commitment is not just to a channel but to a whole community of local sports fans across Malaysia.

Tunku Imran stressed that the events calendar would be imperative to the success of the channel.

“This is where NSAs’ help is required … to keep OCM constantly updated on the events and timetable.

“Astro would be looking for results, news and feedback. A local sports channel is nothing without content and the NSAs have to provide all the content,” he added

To support the NSAs and to build Astro Arena into the best local sports outlet in Malaysia, a number of marketing, promotional and stadium events would be conducted each year.

To make sports more appealing to the younger generation, Astro Arena has appointed Datuk Lee Chong Wei (badminton), Esther Cheah( bowling), Daniel Bego (swimming), Mohd Hazizul Hasni Awang (cycling) , R Puvaneswaran (karate-do), Mohd Aidil Zafuan and Mohd Zaquan Adha (football) and P Mariappan as channel ambassadors. They will be involved in sports clinics and roadshows to bring Astro Arena closer to the community.

Alongside live coverage of sports news and events, the channel will feature stories of Malaysian sports heroes.