Maxis has announced that it signed a 10-year agreement with Astro. As part of the agreement, Astro will be the exclusive content service provider for 3 years while Maxis will be the exclusive fibre service provider.
Speaking at the Maxis quarter 2 financial media briefing today, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sandip Das said that both companies are currently working on a new price plan and will jointly co-market this integrated proposition through both parties’ distribution channel.
The CEO declined to provide more details on this partnership at the moment. However Sandip said that more details on the partnership with Astro will be revealed in “two to three weeks time”.
Maxis has previously signed agreement with a number of content providers for the soon to be launched IPTV service while Astro currently offers the IPTV service via TIME’s fibre broadband service.
Back in June, Maxis partnered with 14 content partners for the Home Fibre Internet IPTV service. They are Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), All Asia Multimedia Networks FZ-LLC, Media Prima Berhad, LI TV International Ltd, Red Bull GmbH, Five Star Production Co. Ltd, Vision Plus Entertainment Sdn Bhd, Travel Channel International Limited, Asa’ad Entertainment Network Sdn Bhd, Brilliant Pictures, Five Star Trading, Trace TV S.A., The Wiggles International Pty Ltd and Classic Media Distribution Limited.
The brands and channels that Maxis will be featuring include seven Free-to-Air Channels namely TV1, TV2, TVi, TV3, NTV7, 8TV, TV9; as well as content from LI Space, LI Body, LI Savour, LI Chic, Tonton, Travel Channel, Wiggles, Jump, Classic Media, Trace Urban, Trace Sports, XS, Red Bull, Five Star Trading, Five Star Production, Brilliant Pictures and Asa’ad.
With the agreement in place, Maxis was supposed to launch the IPTV service in July.
Astro on the other hand partnered with TIME dotCom Berhad (TIME) in December 2010. The IPTV service gives subscribers access to all regular Astro channels along with 12 high-definition channels depending on the package, as well as access to a new video-on-demand service.
The service is primarily aimed at “multi-dwelling units,” (also known as condominiums and apartments) which are covered by TIME’s current broadband access – namely, in the KLCC/Golden Triangle area, Mont Kiara/Sri Hartamas areas and Bangsar as well as in Georgetown on Penang island.
MalaysianWireless will reach out to Maxis next week for more details on their partnership with Astro. As of Q2 this year, Maxis said that it has connected 9400 homes for its Home fibre Internet service.
Maxis Home fibre service starts from RM218 for 10Mbps. It is available to over 1.2 million homes and offices including TM’s HSBB coverage areas.
