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Elevating the Sports Experience For Malaysians

Feb 23, 2024

Astro has been synonymous with sports since 1996 with its LIVE coverage of global events such as the Olympics, World Cup, English Premier League and Formula One.

This was followed by the launch of Arena in 2008 – marking the start of the country’s first dedicated channel for Malaysian sports.

Arena has since gone on to become the top destination for local sports fans with its comprehensive coverage of the Malaysian Football League, in addition to developing and popularizing the Sepak Takraw League, the Netball Super League and sooka Super Series Volleyball.

To further enhance its position as the top pick for Malaysian sports fans, Astro has also expanded its product offering to introduce sooka – a game changing sports streaming service allowing users to subscribe to watch every Premier League and Liga Malaysia game in HD on mobile or big screen.

Astro is also creating a culture of fandom around the sooka universe, by constantly entertaining fans before, during and after sports events, in order to deliver more engagement.

But in order for Malaysians to continue enjoying the best sports viewing experience, piracy has to be severely dealt with.

Pure & simple, piracy is theft. It is stealing from every single person in the creative ecosystem -from the players, writers, producers, directors and cameramen, thus threatening jobs and hampering development of the industry.

Astro has brought, and will continue to bring, charges against sellers of ISDs preloaded with applications. These devices act as gateways to websites or content servers streaming pirated content, which Astro also targets direct.

In a landmark decision in May last year, the Intellectual Property High Court in Kuala Lumpur declared that the sale, offer for sale, distribution and/or supply of TV Boxes or illicit streaming devices (“ISDs”) that can provide unauthorized access to copyrighted works, constitutes copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, 1987 is a criminal offence. In the interests of all law-abiding, tax-paying Sports fans, Astro will continue to work with authorities and content partners to send a strong message that content piracy is theft, illegal and punishable by law.