Astro Steps Up Regional Content Pacts

Malaysia’s Astro has aligned with several producers in the region for a new slate of original content.

“It is our intent to be a key player in the Asian content space,” said Henry Tan, COO of Astro. “We will prioritize and increase our content spend on signature, vernacular and ASEAN IPs by 50 percent. Our focus is on the creation of exportable and differentiated vernacular content IPs. We have seen positive response from our customers and are confident that this trend will continue. We believe these IPs will anchor our long-term value proposition, and ultimately, is what our customers want and are willing to pay for. Our strong presence in Malaysia, and growing presence in the region via Tribe and other distribution partners, underpin a wider customer base to amortize bigger and better productions.”

In Indonesia, Astro is working with local partners on the miniseries DOSA, as well as the films Heist and Polis Evo2, which will be released theatrically in 2018. And in Thailand it has 3 A.M. Bangkok Ghost Stories and in the Philippines Door; both are horror movies. Astro has also clinched deals in China and India for remakes of The Journey.