New CEO at Malaysia’s Astro

KUALA LUMPUR, December 11: Malaysia’s Astro All Asia
Networks, parent company of the Astro DTH platform and Hong Kong-based
Celestial Pictures, has named former BSkyB executive Robert Odendaal as CEO,
effective February 1, 2007.

Ralph Marshall will relinquish his position as group CEO and
assume the role of executive deputy chairman.

Commenting on the new CEO appointment, Marshall said,
“Strategy execution is an extremely important function for the group and has
been a key objective of the Board. Robert brings with him extensive hands-on
experience and expertise in satellite broadcasting and multi-media platforms,
having successfully dealt with technology and customer-related issues which are
not dissimilar to those of Astro’s when he was with Bell ExpressVu, Canada’s
largest and fastest growing digital satellite TV provider with approximately
US$1 billion revenues and 1.8 million customers. In addition, he is well
positioned to expand our current satellite broadcasting capabilities to new
media products given his experience in distribution platforms —from
satellite to wireless as well as wire-line and industry-leading Internet
Protocol-based solutions for the distribution of TV content.”

Odendaal was at BSkyB from 1996 to 2003. Most recently, he
was president and CEO of Bell Mobility and Bell Distribution, following a stint
as president and CEO of Bell Video Group (including Bell ExpressVu).

In related news, Astro has reported higher revenues. Group
revenues for the quarter ended October 31, 2006, rose 9 percent to RM553.8
million ($155.99 million), and net profit increased 20 percent to RM68 million
($19.1 million). In the quarter, Astro added 56,500 residential customers,
bringing its customer base to 1.97 million, a 36 percent penetration of
Malaysian pay-TV homes.

The Malaysian company’s Hong Kong-based Celestial Pictures
reported higher revenues of RM15.8 million ($4.4 million), up 37 percent thanks
to the newly launched WaTV Channel and higher subscriptions to its Celestial
Movies Channel.

Commenting on the results, Marshall noted, “We achieved
satisfactory progress in our objective of increasing vernacular content to meet
the demands of our changing subscriber base in Malaysia and that of our new
markets, particularly Indonesia. We have enhanced our content capabilities in
Bahasa language in Malaysia and Indonesia, Chinese in Hong Kong and China, as
well as in India, through joint ventures with niche operators. As such, we will
have some 25 channels of aggregated and original content of various genres,
giving us a great opportunity to brand and market the Astro Entertainment
Network on our distribution platforms. Over the next 12 months, we expect to
invest some RM200-250 million on these channels, which would be largely
recouped as programming fees from our affiliates and third parties. We are now
well positioned to participate in new multimedia platform opportunities in our
core target markets. To support future growth, we have strengthened our senior
management ranks and enhance our human capital resources, in particular,
acquiring the requisite technical capabilities, to take us into our next stage
of growth.”