Astro Malaysia alternatives : Netflix, Hulu and others

Astro Malaysia Alternatives : Why choose an alternative?

Astro, which has been the mainstay of paid television in Malaysia had challenges recently in the form of HyppTV and And ABN TV, both significantly cheaper, though still lacking in premium content compared to Astro. After all, most top channels like HBO, MAX, ESPN and others are still with Astro. And Astro isn’t cheap.

Assuming you’re a Chinese movie buff, a Superpack3 would cost you RM 155.00, under promotional rates. And the usual rates would be RM 254.85. That’s roughly about 10-15% of a Malaysian fresh graduate’s income. Plus, there’s no way to control what you want to see when you want to see them. How about if you had a way to reduce costs and have the movies/TV series you want at your fingertips?

Astro Malaysia Alternatives : Who to choose from

If you already have High Speed Broadband (HSBB) in your home, you can consider Netflix, Hulu or Amazon. Our choice would be Netflix if you’re a movie buff and Hulu Plus if you’re into TV series, especially due to Hulu Plus having chinese TV series that some of us would miss if we don’t have our Wah Lai Toi. (Unfortunately, Hulu Plus has been disabled outside of US)
Netflix is a viable competitor to Astro Malaysia, due to its range of TV series and movies. Recently, I binge watched TV series like Daredevil, Agents of SHIELD from Marvel and Gotham. The great thing about Netflix, is that you’re able to switch regions to US and enjoy TV series and movies not found on our local Malaysian Netflix.

How do we setup?

1. We recommend either getting a VPN (like Strong VPN) or a DNS provider like UnblockUS. Our preference is UnblockUS due to it’s privacy policy.
2. Get yourself an Apple TV set
3. Subscribe to both UnblockUS and Netflix/Hulu
4. Read and apply guide on UnblockUS’ website
5. Run!

If you need more details on how to watch Netflix USA in Malaysia, read our other article here.
How about my Champions League soccer matches and all, you may ask? No fear, as you may watch free, live streaming matches via Bet365 or Unobet. Yes, they’re betting companies, but you don’t have to bet to watch. Just register, and as long as you’ve a HSBB, you’re free to go =)
And finally, how much do I need to pay for Netflix in Malaysia?

1. UnblockUS – USD 4.99/month
2. Netflix – USD 7.99/month

If you only subscribe to one of them, your overall charges are only USD 12.98/month. That’s roughly RM 39 to RM 45, depending on our currency fluctuation. And that’s way cheaper than Astro =)

On my end, I subscribed to HyppTV when they had the RM 30/month offer for all channels (existing ones then) and another RM 30/month for two of Astro’s Sports Channel, which were on HyppTV via a contract between Astro and Telekom Malaysia. Nevertheless, during the 2014 World Cup, I posted ways on how to watch World Cup 2014 for free via Unotelly 🙂
Btw, Hulu is having a 1 month free access, instead of their usual 1 week. Register here =) Netflix always had a 1 month free trial anyways.
(Sorry, we had to remove the deal as it was over. Will post up a new deal when it comes up again)

Conclusion on Astro Malaysia Alternatives

We firmly believe with the advent of high speed broadband services in Malaysia (which is still expensive when you consider the income of Malaysians), services like Netflix and Hulu are definitely the way to go. And these streaming services will only grow. For local cable TV providers, perhaps they should reconsider and reconfigure their current packages to suit the upcoming trend. Pricing Video On Demand at expensive prices and with time limitation, won’t help but further accelerate the growth of streaming services
If you are still considering which DNS service to sign up, we recommend the following

1. Unblock-US
2. Unlocator

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