Astro debuts region’s first TV addressable advertising using Synamedia Iris

KUALA LUMPUR and LONDON, December 1 2021 – Malaysia’s leading content and entertainment company, Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro), and Synamedia, the world’s largest independent video software provider, today announced a partnership to launch the first addressable TV advertising service in South East Asia. Advertisers will be able to show different ads to different households while they are watching the same program, based on data including location and demographics.

With its new addressable advertising offer, Astro’s media solutions business will help all advertisers – from big brands to local small businesses – reach specific audiences with targeted ads independently of whether they are watching broadcast TV or streaming services.

Using Synamedia Iris’s unified addressable advertising platform, Astro will make it easy for advertisers to reach the top 50% of Malaysian households across live, streaming and catch-up in a single measurable campaign for the first time. This simplified approach improves campaign performance and maximizes the value of advertising spend.

As it set its sights on becoming an addressable advertising powerhouse, Astro looked for technology that would make it easy to build a new revenue stream. Available as a service (SaaS), Synamedia Iris provides a single environment for managing, delivering and measuring advertising consistently on all devices, services and screens. Importantly, it allows Astro to offer addressable advertising across its entire subscriber base including set-top boxes with one-way connectivity.

Addressable advertising will be available on the Astro GO streaming service in late 2021, followed by linear TV progressively on all set-top boxes through 2022.

Euan Smith, CEO of TV and Group COO, Astro, said “Advertisers in Malaysia now have a scaled alternative to the prevailing dominant market model. And, for the first time, it will be viable for even local small businesses to access TV inventory, the most effective form of advertising. With a flexible and effective service, advertisers will have a data-driven targeting and measurement capability to boost ad performance and conversion rates without wasting impressions. Meanwhile, our customers will enjoy a more personalized and relevant user experience as they see ads that reflect their local community and demographics.”

“TV advertising is now opening up to new audiences that can take advantage of Astro’s premium content, reach, rich customer data and reporting metrics. This first deployment of Synamedia Iris demonstrates Astro’s commitment to innovation and creative solutions as it monetizes its inventory and unlocks revenues. By deploying Synamedia Iris with its cloud native architecture, Astro is able to open up addressable advertising to its entire subscriber base, irrespective of the capabilities of each users’ devices and network availability,” said Paul Segre, CEO, Synamedia.

Delivered as a service, Synamedia Iris is a complete platform that supports ad management, targeting, ad decisioning and seamless insertion in broadcast and streaming content. Its audience measurement service includes ad measurement, impressions reporting, and performance tracking.

About Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) is Malaysia’s leading content and entertainment company, serving 5.7 million homes or 73% of Malaysian TV households, 6,700 enterprises, 16.8 million weekly radio listeners (FM and digital), 14.3 million digital monthly unique visitors and 3.0 million shoppers across its TV, radio, digital and commerce platforms. At Astro, we are committed to entertaining, informing and engaging with our customers through the best of local, regional and international content. As the largest content creator in the country, we produce and commission over 9,000 hours of local and vernacular content yearly, creating countless memorable moments for millions of Malaysians.

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/astro

About Synamedia and AWS Partnership

Synamedia Iris uses various AWS services to facilitate the configuration, management, operation, and monitoring of addressable TV advertising campaigns by applying audience segmentation and orchestrating them through a user interface and API. AWS services used includes notably EC2, EKS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, CloudWatch.

For press and analyst queries, please contact:

Breakaway Communications for Synamedia

[email protected]