Astro released a press statement announcing a big change in their lineup of channels that they’re offering. Starting 1st October 2021, Astro will “cease broadcast of several channels” belonging to The Walt Disney Company—including their FOX line up and Nat Geo People.
“As a result of this global shift, all regional Southeast Asia partners including Astro will cease broadcast of the following linear channels belonging to Disney after 30 September 2021: FOX, FOX Life, FX, FOX Movies, FOX Action Movies, FOX Family Movies, FOX Sports, FOX Sports 2, FOX Sports 3, and Nat Geo People. Additionally, as part of Astro’s efforts to refresh content for its English entertainment segment, both Discovery Science and Hello channels will cease broadcast after 30 September 2021,” wrote Astro.
The FOX line of channels has had some pretty popular shows, including The Voice under FOX Life and The Walking Dead under FOX. Some of Astro’s loyal customers might not take this news too lightly. But as Astro offers Disney+ Hotstar for their Movie Pack customers, you can find shows like The Walking Dead on the online platform—the only thing it might now have is perhaps reality shows like The Voice.
What Astro will replace the channels with
Replacing the Disney-owned channels will be a new lineup starting 15 September 2021. They will include HBO Family (Ch 414), HBO Hits (Ch 415), SHOWCASE MOVIES (Ch 413), BBC Lifestyle (Ch 717), BBC Earth (Ch 554), Paramount Network (Ch 713), Lifetime (Ch 703) and PRIMEtime (Ch 704), as well as new sports channels Astro Arena 2 (Ch 802), Astro SuperSport 5 (Ch 815) and SPOTV (Ch 816) on 1 October 2021. In mid-October, On Demand customers can expect access to BBC First and BBC Brit. There will be no changes to your Astro bill after the content refresh.
“In line with the current shift in consumer preferences and demand, coupled with our intention to expand our content offering, we are pleased to present this new channel line-up which brings with it, a host of top-rated and highly-anticipated shows,” said Azlin Arshad, Commercial Director of Astro.
For more info on the new content lineup, you can check out their FAQ and their new channel listing.
Lately, Astro has been adding more on-demand video streaming services to its current offering. After announcing a partnership with Disney+ Hotstar, they recently started offering its customers access to TVBAnywhere+ and soon you can enjoy Netflix with your Astro pay-TV subscription. The actual Netflix deal on Astro hasn’t been revealed yet but they have added a Netflix button to its new Ultra Box remote control.
The lack of channels from The Walt Disney Company also applies to Unifi TV—as they too will no longer offer their channels starting 1 October 2021. They have instead offered 19 new content offerings including streaming services such as Amazon Prime, TVBAnywhere+ and Lionsgate Play.
