| Astro Continues To Work On Indonesian Pay TV Joint Venture |
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By Yong Soo Heong
KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Bernama) -- Astro is continuing to work on its joint venture arrangement for the operations of its satellite pay tv service in Indonesia despite some recent regulatory hiccups, sources said Wednesday.
Astro, the dominant satellite tv operator in Malaysia, is hoping to finalise arrangements with the Jakarta-based Lippo Group to jointly operate an Indonesian satellite pay tv service undertaken by Lippo's unit, PT Direct Vision, in a preliminary deal that was concluded in March this year.
The Astro service was launched by PT Direct Vision under licensing Arrangements. This allows more than 40 news and entertainment channels provided by Astro to be beamed to PT Direct Vision round-the-clock.
PT Direct Vision is estimated to have chalked up 12,000 customers so far.
Astro announced on April 28 that the closing date for the joint venture subscription and shareholders' agreement for it to take up a stake in PT Direct Vision had been extended to July 31, 2006.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia on Tuesday, Astro said it would make an appropriate disclosure on any developments in due course.
Astro also distanced itself from a news report on Monday which indicated that both the Malaysian and Indonesian governments had reached agreement on the reciprocity of their broadcasters operating in each other's territory.
Astro told Bursa Malaysia that it was premature for it to comment on the governmental agreement as it was not a party to it and had not come to any conclusion on subscription and shareholders' agreement on its proposed joint venture with the Lippo Group as yet.
PT Direct Vision hit a snag last month when the Indonesian government said it could not use a foreign satellite -- operated by Measat Global Bhd -- to offer its programmes.
There had been protests by some Indonesian pay tv broadcasters that PT Direct Vision's use of the Measat 2 satellite was against the Indonesian Satellite Communications Law, which prohibits the use of foreign satellites in Indonesia unless reciprocal rights were accorded to Indonesian satellites.
PT Direct Vision had earlier argued that its operation does not violate the law as Indonesian satellites have been relaying signals to Malaysia since 1980.
Following an agreement between the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Post and Telecommunications Ministry of Indonesia had stated that broadcasters from the two countries are allowed to operate in each other's market according to the respective country's regulations and without any discrimination.
Industry sources believed that governmental agreement between the two countries would pave the way for PT Direct Vision to tap into a huge market with more than 30 million households and a current low penetration rate of 0.6 percent (about 200,000 subscribers).
It is learnt that Direct Vision has been averaging 200 new customers a day.
-- BERNAMA
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