The future of TV is personal
Astro has revamped and relaunched its mobile app, as it believes that everyone wants their own personal screen.
ASTRO has relaunched Astro Go, the company’s app that allows users to watch Astro content on their mobile devices.
The app will allow existing Astro customers to enjoy up to 71 channels and over 23,000 on-demand titles from Hollywood, Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and India, depending on the Astro package they are subscribed to.
Even non-subscribers can download and use the Astro Go app although they will only be able to access limited content.
“At Astro we believe the future of TV lies in personal TV screens,” said Astro chief commercial officer Liew Swee Lin.
“We remain focused on continuing to grow our customer reach through content recommendation on Astro Go, which are predicated on deep viewership insights built from real-time viewing behaviour, preferences, topical trends and social sentiments,” she added.
Originally launched as the Astro On The Go app in 2012, the new app has been completely rebuilt with a sleeker and more intuitive interface and now uses machine learning and predictive analytics to suggest content that is relevant to the user.
According to Astro vice president of digital products Ridhuan Sidek, the app will also allow users to download shows and movies for offline viewing and also add them to their watchlist.
On top of the personalised recommendations, customers can also search for content by language or genre.
One of the highlights of the app is that it will offer not just movies and TV series but also a dedicated Sports section which will have both live and on-demand content with some offering instant replays, league tables and multi-camera angles.
Sports on Astro Go includes Premier League football and the Tennis French Open, amongst others.
Astro Go will also have three exclusive channels, namely Comedy Central, the K-Plus channel for fans of Korean drama and Aniplus which will feature the latest Japanese anime.
Future plans include the ability to allow up to four concurrent user logins for each Astro account and the ability to cast content to a HDTV via Google Chromecast.
To celebrate the relaunch, subscribers who have registered and linked their Astro Go account will enjoy free viewing of all TV channels and on-demand content from April 1 to May 31.
This includes on-demand movies like Academy Award winning musical La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and popular TV series like Game Of Thrones.
According to Astro’s statistics, the original Astro On The Go app has to date recorded 3.2 million downloads and 1.1 million registered users and seen viewing time grow from 60 minutes per week at its initial launch to 215 minutes today.
The updated Astro Go app is available for Android smartphones on the Google Play store and iOS devices on the Apple App Store.