- Euan Smith believes Astro on the right path with its 3 strategic bets
- Satellite platform, once a market advantage, is a costly legacy drag today
We walked into Astro Group Bhd’s headquarters recently with some trepidation. With only five analysts covering the listed media company, down from a high of 15 in its heydays, and with four of them having a Sell call, we expected a grim conversation with a downbeat CEO. Especially one who, according to analysts, is looking at a potential US$174.14 million (RM735 million) tax bill if it is unsuccessful in its appeal against the Internal Revenue Board’s additional assessments.
But Euan Smith, who joined Astro in early 2020 with a reputation as a turnaround specialist and was elevated to Group CEO in 2023, displayed none of the characteristics of a CEO under market pressure to deliver a turnaround.
Instead, armed with a whiteboard, ‘I think visually,’and with an infectious optimism, Euan, who is described by one former senior exec as the most tech savvy CEO Astro has had, spent the next hour dismantling our preconceptions about a company many have written off as a relic of the pre-streaming era and proceeded to explain how the company’s salvation in fact, has already been mapped out. The turnaround now lay in executing a successful transition into becoming a streaming super aggregator. Yes, it aims to embrace the turbulence.
To be sure, this strategy is not new. Astro first announced it in 2020. Nor is it a new strategy among the world’s beleaguered satellite and cable TV players, all of whom are facing the same challenges Astro is.
In fact, Euan has seen it work with his previous employers. Hence his declaration, “I would not be in the building if I did not believe that we had a very bright and positive future.”
Marker in hand, he began sketching the strategy that’s kept Astro fighting back against global streaming leaders, while burdened with the responsibility of maintaining its costly satellite infrastructure to serve the half of Malaysia without broadband access – “the only way they can get television is via satellite,” he said.
Interestingly, Euan does not feel that Astro receives credit due for keeping its satellite customers plugged in, recognising that its service is an important part of the fabric of Malaysian society, especially its elderly, while pivoting as fast as it can. “I don’t think we get anything like the credit and the thanks for running that operation.”
However, critics will point out that it was this costly satellite infrastructure, now a burden, that was the key to Astro enjoying a near 2 decades monopoly since it got its licence in 1994 and that it now needs to take the sweet with the bitter and deal with the changing content delivery platforms and consumer behaviour.
Quarterly performance
As a listed company reporting its financials every quarter, the numbers well support the market’s gloomy prognosis over the future of the entertainment company once called a ‘media giant’ in Malaysia.
Astro’s 9MFY25 results, released recently, showed an 8% revenue decline, with core net profit plummeting 50.2% year-on-year to RM52.7 million. Sequential ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), a key metric watched by analysts, dropped to RM99.20 as more subscribers opted for cheaper Astro One packages.
Yet Euan’s narrative reveals a different story entirely, not captured by the cold hard numbers.
The pivot: From satellite monopoly to streaming hybrid
Euan’s whiteboard illustrates what he calls “the same curve” affecting every traditional pay-TV operator globally – from Sky in the UK, where he spent three years, to Foxtel in Australia (whom he left in Feb 2020 to join Asto).
“Every single pay TV operator in the world is on the same kind of path,” he explained, drawing declining customer numbers for traditional satellite, and cable services while showing growth in OTT platforms, or over-the-top as content companies that deliver their content through the internet were once called. We know them now as streaming companies.
The challenge is uniquely complex for satellite operators like Astro. While streamers such as Netflix can amortize content costs globally using a single IP technology stack which he says they built “very inexpensively” compared to satellite TV players, domestic players such as Astro must maintain expensive systems alongside their new digital platforms to serve all Malaysians. “So you still have this huge, and costly legacy operation you’re having to run in serving them.” This platform consists of the satellite platform and the set-top boxes. Compare this to its streaming competitors who rely on public broadband to deliver their services, and via an app, which today is part of the set-up in all smart TVs. Cost, negligible.
This dual-cost burden – what Euan calls “funding the old world and the new world simultaneously” – has forced Astro into aggressive cost optimization. Over five years, the company has reduced content costs by 24% and headcount from over 5,000 to 2,800 employees as of June 2025. Its latest quarterly announcement to Bursa Malaysia also stated its belief that it had further room to optimise costs. “We are slowly eroding the legacy costs out of our cost base,” Euan says.
The big question here is, will he be able to turn the tide to get stock analysts back on Astro’s side before they all run out of patience and belief?
Local content, Astro’s super power
Before talking about the three strategies, one needs to appreciate the key role Astro plays in Malaysia’s creative content ecosystem via its winning bet made on investing in local content since the late 2000s.
This strategy of prioritizing local content over international offerings stems from both consumer preference and business pragmatism. As Euan noted, “much international content is most susceptible to piracy and arriving onshore for free,’ making local productions a more defensible investment.
Today, local content is the most compelling differentiator and a key reason many subscribe to it. Euan revealed that 82% of viewing on Astro’s platform is now local content – up from 64% five years ago. “The top three dramas last year in Malaysia were all Astro originals,” he proudly noted, with “Gegar Vaganza” achieving 2.1 million ratings as the country’s number one program.
“The financial commitment behind this content strategy is substantial. Astro’s local content investment has grown from an estimated RM277 million in FY2022 to RM361 million in FY2024, reaching RM379 million in FY2025 – an increase of almost 25% over two years. This represents one of the largest content investments by any Malaysian media company.
“The savings made from renegotiations on non-local content are being partially redeployed into our own productions which gives us the best returns in terms of eyeballs, engagements and advertising revenue,” Euan explained. “We are driving content innovation by exploring new genres, formats, and partnerships to capitalise on changing consumer trends.”
The company has built a comprehensive content ecosystem, acquiring post-production house Base Camp for under RM1 million and establishing talent agency Rocket Fuel with 20 key personalities. “We’re selling it to the world,” Euan said, confirming under-NDA relationships with three of five major global studios.
Three big bets for the future
What really stands out about Euan’s belief that Astro can turn the tide based on three key strategies, is that none of the strategies are new and were launched under the leadership of Henry Tan, whom Euan succeeded. While it is highly unusual for a CEO engaging in a turnaround, to rely on the strategies introduced by his predecessor, Euan, as the COO since 2020 was involved in the formulations of these strategies.
The scale of Astro’s transformation challenge becomes clear when examining its current subscriber base. With 4.8 million TV customers representing 67% household penetration in Malaysia, an estimated 70-75% still rely on Astro’s traditional Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite service. Only 25-30% have migrated to Over-the-Top (OTT) services including Astro GO, Sooka, and bundled streaming services. This means the majority of Astro’s revenue base remains tied to the expensive satellite infrastructure Euan is trying to transition away from.
The first of the three big bets is Sooka, Astro’s OTT platform, launched in June 2021, targeting younger demographics with packages starting at RM13 monthly.
While it may seem odd that he is placing high hopes on a service that has already been around for four years, recent data suggests his optimism may be justified. In June 2025, marking Sooka’s fourth anniversary, Astro announced the platform had recorded 100% year-on-year growth in paying subscribers and currently ranks as the number one sports app and among the top five highest-grossing apps on Google Play Store in Malaysia.
“The awareness of Sooka is only half of Astro’s. It still has a long way to go,” he says.
The second bet is on broadband. While this is a competitive market, going up against market leader, Unifi and with the telcos also offering their services, Euan believes that Astro’s fiber broadband, introduced in May 2022, leverages a unique advantage. “We’re the only people that can say, never mind all that [speed and reliability], we’ll give you all that. But on top of it, we’ll give you a great content deal,” Euan explained, positioning bundled services as the antidote to subscription fatigue.
The company does not break down its broadband subscribers so it is unclear what traction its bundle offering, which it subsidises, has in the market.
The third pillar is addressable advertising. Introduced in 2021-2022, it has already been growing 17% year-on-year. Using first-party data from nearly one million connected households, Astro can deliver targeted advertisements that would have been impossible with traditional broadcasting, said Euan.
“We can play a BMW advert to households that we know have the capacity to be able to buy a BMW. Also, we can play an advert for Dove to the families and the households that we know are likely to have Dove users.”
While the proposition sounds attractive, marketing budgets are heavily skewed towards online and social media with up to 80% allocations for some large brands, leaving an increasingly small pool for traditional media players to fight over. Market observers also point out that producing TV commercials is an expensive proposition compared to creating online banner ads or coming up with social media marketing creatives. Though the rapid improvements in AI Large Language Models that can create realistic videos may eventually nullify this disadvantage.
Still, this precision targeting that Astro offers represents a massive untapped potential, Euan contends and references his time at Sky UK in 2007 when it launched a similar service. “It’s now 60% of all advertising,” across Sky’s various properties, demonstrating how the technology can eventually dominate traditional carpet-bomb advertising approaches, he said.
Fighting outdated perceptions and reality
Another key question is, can Euan turn the tide of public opinion on Astro?
Aside from the classic jibes around rain fade (even though Euan says Astro has spent heavily over the years to eliminate the effects of heavy rain on its transmission quality), there are the grouses over pricey packages and oft repeats.
Surprisingly, Euan’s biggest frustration isn’t financial performance but public perception. “When I go into a mamak or anywhere and I say Astro, I still get ‘rain fade’, ‘repeats’, ‘expensive’,” he lamented. These perceptions, he argues, reflect Astro’s reality from a decade ago, not today’s hybrid IP-satellite system that automatically switches between delivery methods.
In terms of being expensive, “We haven’t increased prices for a decade,’ Euan emphasized, countering the ‘too expensive’ narrative while competitors raise prices annually.
The new Astro One packages support this argument, offering three tiers: Entertainment Pack at RM49.99/month (vernacular entertainment and Astro Originals), Sports Pack at RM99.99/month (adding Premier League and other sports content), and Epic Pack at RM199.99/month (including Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Max). These packages offer more content variety and streaming flexibility compared to previous legacy packages.
(The recent price increase in the Sports package came after the interview and is in a niche where Astro has the strongest market position.)
The US$71.1 million piracy problem
Perhaps the most revealing moment came when Euan discussed piracy’s devastating impact. “Over the last three years, we talked about US$71.1 million (RM300 million) worth of revenue loss and about US$11.85 million (RM50 million) worth of tax losses to the government,” he stated bluntly.
The piracy ecosystem has evolved from complex satellite card-sharing operations to simple Android apps. Euan described visiting a lawyer’s house where three illegal streaming boxes were stacked up – a backup system for when Astro’s takedown efforts temporarily disabled one feed.
“This is not clever. This is stealing,” Euan emphasized, noting that 36% of content industry jobs have been lost over five years partly due to piracy. Recent legal victories however offer hope.
A local pub was fined RM221,000 for illegal streaming, while Astro secured RM809k in fines and settlements in the first half of FY25. “Once the fine reaches an amount like RM221,000, it starts to become something that people don’t want to risk,” Euan observed.
The contrarian’s bet
Despite analyst downgrades and a 40.5% year-to-date stock decline, Euan remains defiant. His vision extends beyond survival to making Malaysia Southeast Asia’s content hub – “the next Korea” in terms of global content influence.
The strategy is working incrementally. Pay-TV gross additions grew 52% year-on-year in 2024, sequential subscriber growth returned for the first time since 3QFY21, and customer satisfaction scores have improved every year since Euan’s 2020 arrival.
“We are a victim of trying to do the right thing,” Euan reflected, acknowledging the costs of serving Malaysia’s digital divide while building future platforms. Yet his conviction remains unshakeable: “It’s not that grim a story. I just hate being beaten up in the markets for doing the right thing for Malaysia.”
As our interview concluded with Euan still energetically filling his whiteboard with transformation diagrams, one thing became clear: reports of Astro’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The company that once dominated Malaysian living rooms is betting everything on the remaining part of the nation’s fabric – just delivered through fiber optic cables instead of satellite dishes.
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Euan Smith believes Astro on the right path with its 3 strategic bets
Satellite platform, once a market advantage, is a costly legacy drag today
We walked into Astro Group Bhd’s headquarters recently with some trepidation. With only five analysts covering the listed media company, down from a high of 15 in its heydays, and with four of them having a Sell call, we expected a grim conversation with a downbeat CEO. Especially one who, according to analysts, is looking at a potential US$174.14 million (RM735 million) tax bill if it is unsuccessful in its appeal against the Internal Revenue Board’s additional assessments.
But Euan Smith, who joined Astro in early 2020 with a reputation as a turnaround specialist and was elevated to Group CEO in 2023, displayed none of the characteristics of a CEO under market pressure to deliver a turnaround.
Instead, armed with a whiteboard, ‘I think visually,’and with an infectious optimism, Euan, who is described by one former senior exec as the most tech savvy CEO Astro has had, spent the next hour dismantling our preconceptions about a company many have written off as a relic of the pre-streaming era and proceeded to explain how the company’s salvation in fact, has already been mapped out. The turnaround now lay in executing a successful transition into becoming a streaming super aggregator. Yes, it aims to embrace the turbulence.
To be sure, this strategy is not new. Astro first announced it in 2020. Nor is it a new strategy among the world’s beleaguered satellite and cable TV players, all of whom are facing the same challenges Astro is.
In fact, Euan has seen it work with his previous employers. Hence his declaration, “I would not be in the building if I did not believe that we had a very bright and positive future.”
Marker in hand, he began sketching the strategy that’s kept Astro fighting back against global streaming leaders, while burdened with the responsibility of maintaining its costly satellite infrastructure to serve the half of Malaysia without broadband access – “the only way they can get television is via satellite,” he said.
Interestingly, Euan does not feel that Astro receives credit due for keeping its satellite customers plugged in, recognising that its service is an important part of the fabric of Malaysian society, especially its elderly, while pivoting as fast as it can. “I don’t think we get anything like the credit and the thanks for running that operation.”
However, critics will point out that it was this costly satellite infrastructure, now a burden, that was the key to Astro enjoying a near 2 decades monopoly since it got its licence in 1994 and that it now needs to take the sweet with the bitter and deal with the changing content delivery platforms and consumer behaviour.
Quarterly performance
As a listed company reporting its financials every quarter, the numbers well support the market’s gloomy prognosis over the future of the entertainment company once called a ‘media giant’ in Malaysia.
Astro’s 9MFY25 results, released recently, showed an 8% revenue decline, with core net profit plummeting 50.2% year-on-year to RM52.7 million. Sequential ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), a key metric watched by analysts, dropped to RM99.20 as more subscribers opted for cheaper Astro One packages.
Yet Euan’s narrative reveals a different story entirely, not captured by the cold hard numbers.
The pivot: From satellite monopoly to streaming hybrid
Euan’s whiteboard illustrates what he calls “the same curve” affecting every traditional pay-TV operator globally – from Sky in the UK, where he spent three years, to Foxtel in Australia (whom he left in Feb 2020 to join Asto).
“Every single pay TV operator in the world is on the same kind of path,” he explained, drawing declining customer numbers for traditional satellite, and cable services while showing growth in OTT platforms, or over-the-top as content companies that deliver their content through the internet were once called. We know them now as streaming companies.
The challenge is uniquely complex for satellite operators like Astro. While streamers such as Netflix can amortize content costs globally using a single IP technology stack which he says they built “very inexpensively” compared to satellite TV players, domestic players such as Astro must maintain expensive systems alongside their new digital platforms to serve all Malaysians. “So you still have this huge, and costly legacy operation you’re having to run in serving them.” This platform consists of the satellite platform and the set-top boxes. Compare this to its streaming competitors who rely on public broadband to deliver their services, and via an app, which today is part of the set-up in all smart TVs. Cost, negligible.
This dual-cost burden – what Euan calls “funding the old world and the new world simultaneously” – has forced Astro into aggressive cost optimization. Over five years, the company has reduced content costs by 24% and headcount from over 5,000 to 2,800 employees as of June 2025. Its latest quarterly announcement to Bursa Malaysia also stated its belief that it had further room to optimise costs. “We are slowly eroding the legacy costs out of our cost base,” Euan says.
The big question here is, will he be able to turn the tide to get stock analysts back on Astro’s side before they all run out of patience and belief?
Local content, Astro’s super power
Before talking about the three strategies, one needs to appreciate the key role Astro plays in Malaysia’s creative content ecosystem via its winning bet made on investing in local content since the late 2000s.
This strategy of prioritizing local content over international offerings stems from both consumer preference and business pragmatism. As Euan noted, “much international content is most susceptible to piracy and arriving onshore for free,’ making local productions a more defensible investment.
Today, local content is the most compelling differentiator and a key reason many subscribe to it. Euan revealed that 82% of viewing on Astro’s platform is now local content – up from 64% five years ago. “The top three dramas last year in Malaysia were all Astro originals,” he proudly noted, with “Gegar Vaganza” achieving 2.1 million ratings as the country’s number one program.
“The financial commitment behind this content strategy is substantial. Astro’s local content investment has grown from an estimated RM277 million in FY2022 to RM361 million in FY2024, reaching RM379 million in FY2025 – an increase of almost 25% over two years. This represents one of the largest content investments by any Malaysian media company.
“The savings made from renegotiations on non-local content are being partially redeployed into our own productions which gives us the best returns in terms of eyeballs, engagements and advertising revenue,” Euan explained. “We are driving content innovation by exploring new genres, formats, and partnerships to capitalise on changing consumer trends.”
The company has built a comprehensive content ecosystem, acquiring post-production house Base Camp for under RM1 million and establishing talent agency Rocket Fuel with 20 key personalities. “We’re selling it to the world,” Euan said, confirming under-NDA relationships with three of five major global studios.
Three big bets for the future
What really stands out about Euan’s belief that Astro can turn the tide based on three key strategies, is that none of the strategies are new and were launched under the leadership of Henry Tan, whom Euan succeeded. While it is highly unusual for a CEO engaging in a turnaround, to rely on the strategies introduced by his predecessor, Euan, as the COO since 2020 was involved in the formulations of these strategies.
The scale of Astro’s transformation challenge becomes clear when examining its current subscriber base. With 4.8 million TV customers representing 67% household penetration in Malaysia, an estimated 70-75% still rely on Astro’s traditional Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite service. Only 25-30% have migrated to Over-the-Top (OTT) services including Astro GO, Sooka, and bundled streaming services. This means the majority of Astro’s revenue base remains tied to the expensive satellite infrastructure Euan is trying to transition away from.
The first of the three big bets is Sooka, Astro’s OTT platform, launched in June 2021, targeting younger demographics with packages starting at RM13 monthly.
While it may seem odd that he is placing high hopes on a service that has already been around for four years, recent data suggests his optimism may be justified. In June 2025, marking Sooka’s fourth anniversary, Astro announced the platform had recorded 100% year-on-year growth in paying subscribers and currently ranks as the number one sports app and among the top five highest-grossing apps on Google Play Store in Malaysia.
“The awareness of Sooka is only half of Astro’s. It still has a long way to go,” he says.
The second bet is on broadband. While this is a competitive market, going up against market leader, Unifi and with the telcos also offering their services, Euan believes that Astro’s fiber broadband, introduced in May 2022, leverages a unique advantage. “We’re the only people that can say, never mind all that [speed and reliability], we’ll give you all that. But on top of it, we’ll give you a great content deal,” Euan explained, positioning bundled services as the antidote to subscription fatigue.
The company does not break down its broadband subscribers so it is unclear what traction its bundle offering, which it subsidises, has in the market.
The third pillar is addressable advertising. Introduced in 2021-2022, it has already been growing 17% year-on-year. Using first-party data from nearly one million connected households, Astro can deliver targeted advertisements that would have been impossible with traditional broadcasting, said Euan.
“We can play a BMW advert to households that we know have the capacity to be able to buy a BMW. Also, we can play an advert for Dove to the families and the households that we know are likely to have Dove users.”
While the proposition sounds attractive, marketing budgets are heavily skewed towards online and social media with up to 80% allocations for some large brands, leaving an increasingly small pool for traditional media players to fight over. Market observers also point out that producing TV commercials is an expensive proposition compared to creating online banner ads or coming up with social media marketing creatives. Though the rapid improvements in AI Large Language Models that can create realistic videos may eventually nullify this disadvantage.
Still, this precision targeting that Astro offers represents a massive untapped potential, Euan contends and references his time at Sky UK in 2007 when it launched a similar service. “It’s now 60% of all advertising,” across Sky’s various properties, demonstrating how the technology can eventually dominate traditional carpet-bomb advertising approaches, he said.
Fighting outdated perceptions and reality
Another key question is, can Euan turn the tide of public opinion on Astro?
Aside from the classic jibes around rain fade (even though Euan says Astro has spent heavily over the years to eliminate the effects of heavy rain on its transmission quality), there are the grouses over pricey packages and oft repeats.
Surprisingly, Euan’s biggest frustration isn’t financial performance but public perception. “When I go into a mamak or anywhere and I say Astro, I still get ‘rain fade’, ‘repeats’, ‘expensive’,” he lamented. These perceptions, he argues, reflect Astro’s reality from a decade ago, not today’s hybrid IP-satellite system that automatically switches between delivery methods.
In terms of being expensive, “We haven’t increased prices for a decade,’ Euan emphasized, countering the ‘too expensive’ narrative while competitors raise prices annually.
The new Astro One packages support this argument, offering three tiers: Entertainment Pack at RM49.99/month (vernacular entertainment and Astro Originals), Sports Pack at RM99.99/month (adding Premier League and other sports content), and Epic Pack at RM199.99/month (including Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Max). These packages offer more content variety and streaming flexibility compared to previous legacy packages.
(The recent price increase in the Sports package came after the interview and is in a niche where Astro has the strongest market position.)
The US$71.1 million piracy problem
Perhaps the most revealing moment came when Euan discussed piracy’s devastating impact. “Over the last three years, we talked about US$71.1 million (RM300 million) worth of revenue loss and about US$11.85 million (RM50 million) worth of tax losses to the government,” he stated bluntly.
The piracy ecosystem has evolved from complex satellite card-sharing operations to simple Android apps. Euan described visiting a lawyer’s house where three illegal streaming boxes were stacked up – a backup system for when Astro’s takedown efforts temporarily disabled one feed.
“This is not clever. This is stealing,” Euan emphasized, noting that 36% of content industry jobs have been lost over five years partly due to piracy. Recent legal victories however offer hope.
A local pub was fined RM221,000 for illegal streaming, while Astro secured RM809k in fines and settlements in the first half of FY25. “Once the fine reaches an amount like RM221,000, it starts to become something that people don’t want to risk,” Euan observed.
The contrarian’s bet
Despite analyst downgrades and a 40.5% year-to-date stock decline, Euan remains defiant. His vision extends beyond survival to making Malaysia Southeast Asia’s content hub – “the next Korea” in terms of global content influence.
The strategy is working incrementally. Pay-TV gross additions grew 52% year-on-year in 2024, sequential subscriber growth returned for the first time since 3QFY21, and customer satisfaction scores have improved every year since Euan’s 2020 arrival.
“We are a victim of trying to do the right thing,” Euan reflected, acknowledging the costs of serving Malaysia’s digital divide while building future platforms. Yet his conviction remains unshakeable: “It’s not that grim a story. I just hate being beaten up in the markets for doing the right thing for Malaysia.”
As our interview concluded with Euan still energetically filling his whiteboard with transformation diagrams, one thing became clear: reports of Astro’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The company that once dominated Malaysian living rooms is betting everything on the remaining part of the nation’s fabric – just delivered through fiber optic cables instead of satellite dishes.
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