Evergent, a pioneer in customer relationship management (CRM) tools designed for B2C and B2B businesses, announced a partnership with Astro, Malaysia’s largest content and media company. As part of the agreement, Astro will utilize Evergent’s subscription and registration management tools to support its new streaming service, sooka. A free ad-supported video stream and subscription service, Sooka offers live international sports and popular Malaysian dramas and entertainment.
Vijay Sajja, founder and CEO of Evergent, said, “Through Evergent’s global partnerships, we are able to work together with the most innovative media and entertainment companies in each country or region. Astro is the market leader for Malaysian entertainment and a leader in Southeast Asia, and we are proud to help them further grow their business through the launch of sooka. Astro’s new flexible monetization options, powered by Evergent’s industry-leading technology, will make premium content more accessible to millions of Malaysians.”
Astro is the main entertainment company in Malaysia, which has a population of more than 30 million people and serves 74% of Malaysian TV households. Every year, the company produces and commissions more than 9,000 hours of original content for its customers and the general public. As Astro’s new streaming service, Sooka offers live streaming on mobile devices for global sports, including UEFA Euro 2020 iterations and Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Euan Smith, chief executive officer of TV and group chief operations officer at Astro, said, “Astro’s mission is to provide Malaysians with entertaining and informative content, reaching as many customers as possible through the most popular platforms and devices. Through our partnership with Evergent, we are now able to offer multiple pricing options for our new sooka streaming platform while also retaining the ability to unlock new business opportunities as we scale the service. As a result, our customers can choose the pricing model and payment methods that best match their needs, allowing Malaysians to enjoy premium content and live sports anytime, anywhere.”
Evergent provides media and telecommunications providers with flexible customer management and monetization solutions in 175 countries. Nowadays, media companies must compete for both the quality of their content and the value they offer customers: Evergent enables content providers to quickly test and deploy new monetization strategies to find the most effective, customer-friendly business models.
