So there’s this new thing - the Astro Bplayer that we recently got to find out about through our first campaign with Astro. To launch it, they’ve got some very exclusive content that definitely has an audience…the World Cup 2010!

I can say that I haven’t always been an avid football fan, but this World Cup has definitely been of a lot more relevance, and I’ve found myself watching a lot more football, whether it’s at Kayu Nasi Kandar, Ecoba, Movida or even the Terrace Bar at Zouk…or just at home at my computer on Astro Bplayer! Especially since there are a record number of Asian teams in the World Cup this time. Well, they’ve all been eliminated now, but they were Japan, South Korea & North Korea (who got absolutely humiliated).

Here’s a short overview of the Asian teams in the World Cup (they are all out, but still, it’s a good read)

(That’s me in my Nike Team Korea jersey. Yes, I don’t know enough about football to form a decision, so I’m supporting the teams that somewhat look like us…)

Me in my Team Korea jersey. Yes, that's Lien from here :)

As someone working in marketing, I think its very cool that Astro is doing this - especially since World Cup broadcast rights are not easy to get (Singapore nearly didn’t get the World Cup rights this year!), and this is definitely a very good ‘preview’ to potential Astro customers. If you’re a Maxis customer like myself, you get special benefits (you get to watch even more live matches), make sure you link your account - here’s how you do it.

If you're a Maxis subscriber, do this! :)

Basically you can watch it from anywhere with an internet connection and a browser. I’m using Chrome btw. No special software required, but you do have to install the Microsoft Silverlight player (Microsoft’s answer to Flash - which actually does a better job of video streaming). From the URL bar, the videos are loaded from Akamai HD - which is a broadband video delivery platform.

Full screen shot of the Astro Bplayer. Notice that I have also blurred out my Chinese name on top, ahaha!

It streamed pretty well on my Streamyx connection (I’m just using a simple 1MB package), and I must say that it seems to have quite a smart adaptive technology - I turned on some heavy downloads (using up about 80-100KBps), and immediately the video quality dropped but the framerate remained
pretty consistent.

It’s free to watch for now, so make sure you drop by to check it out. You can also catch the recaps until the 18th of the month.

There’s a Twitter contest where you can win some really good prizes for watching while tweeting about the World Cup promoting Astro Bplayer along the way.

(Screenshot of instructions from the website)

Prizes include:

Prizes include a 42" LCD TV 3 laptops and RM100 movie vouchers (that's roughly 10 movies).

Give it a try. You never know if you might win it. I can’t join since I’m an Advertlets employee working on the campaign with Astro, but feel free to pass me the 42″ LCD TV if you win…