Chinese television in Malaysia has come a long way since Astro came into the picture.

Astro Head of Chinese Programming Choo Chi Han (centre) posing with talented local television hosts unearthed and nurtured by Astro: (from left) Jym, Jason Yeoh, Gan Mei Yan, Ryan Tay, Bernard Hiew, Wen Kang, Ser Yee and Crystal Wong.

Chinese television in Malaysia has come a long way since Astro came into the picture.

Remember the days when a whole family of three generations sat in front of a black-and-white TV once a week just to enjoy a Chinese movie.

Those were the beginnings of Chinese TV content in Malaysia, but it has come a long way since then, said Astro Head of Chinese Programming Choo Chi Han.Astro Head of Chinese Programming Choo Chi Han (centre) posing with talented local television hosts unearthed and nurtured by Astro: (from left) Jym, Jason Yeoh, Gan Mei Yan, Ryan Tay, Bernard Hiew, Wen Kang, Ser Yee and Crystal Wong.

“At that time, television audiences would watch local Chinese series. Chinese content only hit a high when Cantonese TV serials came here from Hong Kong in the late 70s and 80s,” said Choo.
Astro stepped in to fill the void with Astro Wah Lai Toi (WLT) in October 1996. The first full-service Cantonese channel in the country, WLT (Channel 311), provided another platform for Chinese drama enthusiasts to watch their favourite shows from Hong Kong TVB, slowly bidding goodbye to the days of renting video tapes.

“Chinese TV was then limited to dramas and other Cantonese shows. There was no content in other dialects.” This, Choo said, was due to the lack of both demand – insufficient slots on TV – and supply – inadequate demand for non-Cantonese programming.

Seeing the huge potential for non-Cantonese programming, Astro introduced the second Chinese channel, Astro Asian Entertainment Channel (AEC) in 1997. It offers Asian TV programmes from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and other Asian countries.

“AEC achieved many firsts as the channel that broadcast content across Asia, more Far East. We were the first to broadcast large-scale non-Cantonese programmes and also the first to introduce Korean and Japanese drama series to the country.”

Moving on, Astro introduced regional channels such as Phoenix Chinese Channel (Channel 312), TVB8 (Channel 313), TVB Xing He (Channel 314) and TVBS Asia (Channel 317).

How do they identify which channel is suitable for local consumption?

“We go for channels with depth, meaning a full channel that is more or less formatted in a certain way.

“Phoenix Chinese Channel is very infotainment-based with a lot of news in Chinese. Another channel is Celestial Movies (Channel 322) that offers only Chinese movies.

“TVBS Asia was the first channel we brought which showed the development of entertainment in Taiwan. Another example is TVB Xing, which features a whole library of TVB drama series,” explained Choo,

Then Astro Shuang Xing (Channel 324) was launched in 2003 as the third Chinese channel. The 24-hour drama channel brings the newest and hottest dramas from the main drama markets of Taiwan, China, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

Last November, Astro launched Astro Hua Hee Dai (Channel 333) to cater to Hokkien viewers and Astro Xiao Tai Yang (Channel 325) that features educational shows for children.

“Astro Hua Hee Dai is one of two 24-hour Hokkien channels in the world. The other is in Xiamen, China.

“This channel has created a lot of waves in Malaysia, especially in the Hokkien communities of Penang and Johor. It has also changed a lot of misperception of Hokkien programming.

“Our fifth channel, Astro Xiao Tai Yang, is also Malaysia’s only 24-hour Mandarin kids channel. It’s more about learning than fun, contrary to the perception that a kids’ channel is all about entertainment. It also teaches children good values and how to speak proper Mandarin.”

For local content, Astro endeavours to identify the gaps in the programming and fill the needs of local viewers without overlapping.

“Apart from infotainment, what we’ve found out is that there is a lot about the country which Malaysians want to know about. So we’ve produced local travelogues to this end.”

Astro also aims to help Malaysians to realise their dreams by providing different avenues in the form of star-search programmes like Astro Star Quest, Classic Golden Melody, Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant, Battleground and Kids Talent Quest.

With these, it has also unearthed and nurtured talented hosts such as Jason Yeoh, Siow Hui Mei, Wong Chun Pin, Gan Mei Yan, Ryan Tay, Bernard Hiew, Jym Chong, Crystal Wong, Ser Yee, Wen Kang. Yeoh was named the best host at the Anugerah Sri Angkasa two years ago.

Talent shows and beauty pageants such as Astro Star Quest – previously known as Astro Talent Quest (ATQ) – and Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant (MACIP) have brought forth many talented local singers, actresses and programme hosts.

Among the more well-known are singers like Gary Chaw (ATQ 1999 finalist) who won best male Mandarin singer at Taiwan’s 19th Golden Melody Awards 2008 (Chinese pop’s equivalent of the Grammy) and MTV Asia Awards 2008 Favourite Artiste Malaysia Nicholas Teo (ATQ 2002 winner), who are now both based in Taiwan.

Based in Hong Kong are actress Debbie Goh (MACIP 1998 winner) and TV host Vivien Yeo (MACIP 2003 winner). Doing well locally are TV host Lynn Lim (MACIP 2000 first runner-up) and actress Eunice Ng (MACIP 2001 first runner-up).

More recently, TV host and actress Josephine Goh (MACIP 2006 second runner-up) has been signed up by a local artiste management agency and clinched movie deals in Japan and Hong Kong.