Popular 24-hour Tamil-language general entertainment channel, Kalaignar TV, will make its debut on mio TV Channel 33, while Astro World, which is available on Channel 321, consolidates the best of Astro Ria and Astro Aruna and offers them on-demand viewing.

 

Launched in 2007 in Chennai, India, Kalaignar TV - one of the top three channels in India - offers a rich variety of Tamil movies, top-notch drama serials, reality shows, game shows, sitcom, comedy, lifestyle magazines and talk shows.   Maan Ada Mayilada, which airs Sundays 7.30pm, is undoubtedly the flag bearer of the channel, a reality dance competition show where popular TV artists contest for the coveted cash awards. The panel of judges includes popular cine artists Kushboo, Namitha and the director of the show, the ace choreographer Dance Master Kala who also conceived, produced and directed the show. This is the only Reality Dance Competition that is now into the fourth season after successful completion of three successful seasons and crossing 100 episodes on the trot.

 

Astro World offers a good mixture of genre and variety of the best programmes from Astro Ria and Aruna. As a catch-up channel, viewers can enjoy past episodes or watch their favourite dramas and shows at their convenience. To add more excitement, the channel also offers mini concerts, sitcoms and a wide selection of lifestyle programmes plus great children’s entertainment like the popular show  Tom Tom Bak.   During the festivities of Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji, Astro World offers a mixed variety of programmes like great new movies first shown Singapore during the festive seasons on RIA and ARUNA channels.

 

Viewers can enjoy films such as  Gubra, winner of Best Film, Screenplay and Best Actress in the Malaysian Film Festival. Directed and written by famed Malaysian director, Yasmin Ahmad,.Gubra (Anxiety) tells a story of love and forgiveness, its possibilities and the hopes it brings.

 

English and/or Malay subtitles will be made available for selected movies and telemovies.

 

With the launch of these two new channels, mio TV will be splitting the Malay/ Indian SuperSaver Packs into two separate packs.   The Astro Pack will contain Astro Aruna, Astro Ria and Astro World, while subscribers to the SuperSaver Indian Pack will receive EROS Bollywood, Kalaignar TV, Zee Channel, Zee Tamil and Zing.

 

 

How to Subscribe

 

Current mio TV subscribers can subscribe to these channels directly by using the mio TV on-screen guide or by contacting the Singtel Hotline at 1800 555 6000 from Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm. 

 

New subscribers can sign-up for mio TV services through the Singtel Hotline (1800 555 6000), the website  www.singtel.com/miotv or at any Singtel Retail Store.

 

The normal subscription rate for Astro World is $6.42/month or $5.78/month on a 12-monthly basis.   The channel is also available as part of the Astro Pack.

 

The normal subscription rate for Kalaignar TV is $6.42/month or $5.35/month on a 12-monthly basis. The channel is also available as part of the SuperSaver Indian Pack.

 

The Astro and SuperSaver Indian Packs are each priced at $9.90 (including GST).

About mio TV

mio TV is the innovative digital pay TV service offering from Singtel. Launched in July 2007, the service offers customers value and full flexibility to watch what they want, when they want. Within two years, mio TV has signed up over 100,000 customers.

 

Currently, mio TV offers a total of 56 channels, of which 21 are on-demand channels. Content on mio TV covers a wide range of genres as well as Singapore’s largest range of video-on-demand titles and High Definition content.

 

Singtel is Asia’s leading communications group providing a portfolio of services including voice and data services over fixed, wireless, pay TV and Internet platforms.

 

Together with its regional partners, it serves over 262 million mobile customers in eight markets. For more information, visit www.singtel.com/miotv.

About Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd (AESB)

Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd (AESB), a subsidiary of Astro All Asia Networks plc (AAAN) was formed in 2007 with the aim to create, develop and package local content and channels for the Malay speaking community in Malaysia and the region.  Today AESB drives the end to end delivery of 9 Astro branded channels including ASTRO RIA, PRIMA, OASIS, CERIA, AWANI, HITZ TV, ARUNA, WARNA and CITRA.

 

Since its inception, the company continues to invest in local and localized content to be relevant to the ever evolving market place. As such the company has more than doubled its first-run transmission hours for local content from 1,700 hours in 2007 to 3,900 hours in 2008.  

 

Among AESB’s signature content creations that have found national and regional recognition include Malaysia’s No. 1 reality show - Akademi Fantasia, Malaysia’s No. 1 comedy show - Raja Lawak, and many more. The success of AESB’s local productions enabled it to syndicate its content and reach out to a wider network of customers across Asia and potentially the world.

 

Astro ARUNA and RIA channel are available on Singapore Telecom’s Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) platform, mio TV.  

 

AESB will continue to expand its regional footprint into other countries such as the Netherlands,Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore where the Pay TV operators are syndicated or licensed for use across various television networks.