Astro launches Tribe, an OTT online video service for the region

Malaysian pay-TV platform, Astro Malaysia has launched Tribe, a differentiated over-the-top (“OTT”) online video service for the region.

Its Group Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Rohana Rozhan said, it marks a new milestone for Astro.

“Today marks a new milestone for Astro with the launch of Tribe, our OTT service for the ASEAN video consumers. Tribe is premised on Astro's aspiration to build on our customer reach and content scale, leveraging on our experience in serving our diverse customers and marketplace.

"It remains our commitment to build on our vernacular capabilities, and signature IP's, as Astro, as well as in collaboration with key partners regionally and internationally.

"Understanding there is no one-size-fits-all go to market strategy, Tribe will seek complementary win-win partnerships with local telecommunications and media companies in each market, to jointly build on customer reach, and relationships, whilst leveraging on combined invested platforms and technologies, to deliver a greater customer experience,” she said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Tribe, Iskandar Samad said, Tribe is all about building a community of fans around the most popular content genres, particularly in the younger demographic.

“We are happy to work with Axiata Digital Services who is launching initially in Indonesia today.

"Consumers of today are highly mobile and socially connected; we intend to build a relevant social connection between users through the content they consume.

"Social media is already the new water cooler, and we want our content to be at the centre of that dialogue," he added.

Iskandar also said, Tribe will be mobile-first, allowing consumption anytime, anywhere.

It will deliver highly tailored content, combining both live and on demand, and its aim will be to provide the most compelling content that will resonate with consumers in each target market.

"Through user feedback, we will dynamically tailor the content slate to suit their preferences,” Iskandar said.

For Indonesia, Tribe will start by offering live and on demand content for Korean fans, sports fans and Asian movie buffs.

For the first time ever, sports fans will be able to enjoy live sports content through Fox Sports 1, 2 and 3, which will include coverage of MotoGP, Bundesliga, Formula 1, UFC and BWF (Badminton) events.

Korean entertainment fans will be able to catch the latest K-entertainment within hours of their world premiere on Oh!K and soon, live K-pop music events on Channel M from Korea.

Tribe will also offer a selection of Asian and Indonesian films in various genres of horror, action and drama.

"We are working on personalized discovery and recommendation, and will progressively add features such as download to-go and integrated social media engagement over the coming months.

"We are also developing exciting plans to launch Tribe in a number of other markets within this year", Iskandar adds.