Piracy one of major reasons Astro losing subscribers
KUCHING: Piracy has been seen as one of the major reasons Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd (Astro) is losing its subscriber base, analysts note following a conference call with the group’s management.
The research arm of Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd ( HLIB Research) gathered that on the issue of piracy, Covid-19 has caused the slowing down in the development as the focus has been diverted in curbing the pandemic instead.
“Illegal streaming has long been a problem as they ultimately take a share of the market,” HLIB Research said.
“Unfortunately, it is still a long way ahead in combating piracy. To compare, in Australia, on top of blocking website, the Australian Government has turned to strict financial punishment for users downloading pirated content.
“Penalties have been said to sit between A$80 to A$2,000 per offense. Astro sees combating piracy as a worthwhile investment for them considering the repercussion from the leakage in the system.”
According to HLIB Research, globally, the impact to the media industry is estimated at US$500 billion annually due to content piracy.
HLIB Research noted that in Malaysia, the media industry is hit with an estimated circa RM1 billion in loss revenues and potentially up to RM150 million in taxes being withheld from the government.
“Piracy is seen as one of the major reasons Astro is losing its subscriber base.”
The research arm further noted that Astro have been working diligently with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ( MCMC) and Internet Service Providers to track down and block the pirated websites.
“However, the Covid-19 has caused slowing down this development as the focus been diverted in curbing the pandemic instead.”