It could be another PR disaster for paid station ASTRO after their subsidary, ASTRO ARENA decided to replace the ‘live telecast’ between Perak and Sarawak to a ‘delayed telecast’, which might be played at 2AM later on. The slot will now broadcast a live feed of the Thomas Cup involving Malaysia.
As the news spread, football fans from both Sarawak and Perak are already pouring their dissatisfaction over the cancellation of the live telecast to every possible avenue related to ASTRO ARENA, which also includes the innocent Sarawak journalist and personalities working in the dedicated sports channel.
Die-hard supporter Joseph with his tweet handle @joekaosjr tweeted that he is baffled why ASTRO decided to air the the Thomas Cup on ASTRO ARENA as ASTRO has already dedicated one channel for the massive badminton competition.
Others however were not so kind as they used negative words to express their dissatisfaction towards both ASTRO and ASTRO ARENA for the last minute decision which will deprive the huge Sarawak fan base which is mostly across the South China Sea, of watching the game live.
A few comments detected were also politically inclined with them suggesting that the move only shows that the move by ASTRO only shows the urgent need to change the government in order for Sarawak to be treated more fairly in the coming future.
This is the third time ASTRO has been in hot waters with the Sarawak fans. The first incident caused the Sarawak fans to create a direct parody (No Live No Problem) on ASTRO ARENA’s inability to show the crowing match of Sarawak as League champions, while the second incident saw their radio station ERA.fm being threatened by fans for allowing their announcers to belittle the Sarawak team over live radio. Both incidents saw ASTRO apologize profusely over their network with their announcers on ERA.fm were also asked to make a public apology.
Regardless, the strain between ASTRO and Sarawak football fans is set to be severed even further with this latest episode, and it is anyone guest what would transpire from it.
For us at SarawakCrocs.com, the move by ASTRO is deeply regretted as we feel that the station should give a better reason for the decision, and perhaps be more sensitive with the Sarawak fans whom have been anticipating the live telecast after it was well promoted by ASTRO.
UPDATE [5pm@23/5/2014]: ASTRO has announced that the the Perak vs Sarawak game will be available on their Astro On The Go Apps which is available on both Android and iOS devices. Fans can start streaming to the game at 8:40PM.
The move is expected to calm the heated nerves of fans, but those without abundance of data will will be deprived of watching the game nonetheless.
