More than 200 people today staged a protest demanding for more local Tamil content on satellite television network Astro.

They want the network's Channel 201 (Astro Vaanavil) to be turned into a 100 percent local Tamil channel.

“Astro has around 14 channels in the Indian languages, and all are from India. But they don’t have one full Malaysian Tamil channel.

“For 20 years in this country, don’t tell me Astro can’t put up even one Malaysian (Tamil) channel,” Malaysian Indian Creative Content Action Force (MICCC) president S Muniyandy said, outside the Astro headquarters in Bukit Jalil today.

Muniyandy said it is essential to have more local Tamil content in order to preserve the identity of the language.

“We need our news to be played in Tamil for the local news, not the foreign ones,” he added.

Responding to this, Astro in a statement later today said it was committed to supporting local content and has put in significant investment to produce local Tamil programmes.

"The Malaysian viewership share of local versus foreign Tamil programmes is at a 10:90 yet our budget allocation for local versus foreign is at 30:70.

"In short, local productions make up 30 percent of our total investment in Tamil content, and this is three times the market preference," said Astro chief operating officer Henry Tan.

'Heavy investment in local Indian content'

Tan added that 80 percent of Astro Vaanavil's budget is for local content.

"The reality is that production of local content is costly, but we remain committed to increase our fresh hours of local content.

"In the past 10 years, Astro has produced over 7,000 hours of local Tamil content including Vizhthugal and 360 Degree, which have helped bridge and connect the relevant stakeholder groups with the community," he said.

Tan said Astro is also the only private operator which has invested heavily in local Indian content.

"Our share of Malaysia’s local Indian content is over 80 percent. Astro has and will continue to develop and support local Indian content.

"Our programmes such as Vaanavil SuperStar and Yutha Medai have given opportunity to over 1,000 local talents. Similarly we have groomed over 125 hosts and anchors on TV and Radio," he said.

The protest this morning comprise local artistes, activists, representatives from NGOs and politicians.

They demanded that Astro give opportunities to local artistes.

Muniyandy said Astro should use Malaysian artistes in the production of advertisements as well, so as to provide more platforms for them to show their talents.

“We need a representative from either MICCC or Finas to be seated in the Astro panel to ensure that content quality is there,” he said.

Muniyandy said youths who are pursuing their studies in creative industry courses are finding it difficult to get jobs after graduation as the opportunities are given to foreigners.

“We want to inform the (Astro) subscribers about the importance of local productions to preserve our identity,” he said.

Local artiste Sathis Rao, 36, said the limited opportunities in the country had driven those who are passionate to live a harsh life.

“I cannot be a full-time artiste because I have a lot of responsibilities... to pay for the car, house and bills. I have to take another job to sustain myself," he said.

The campaign demanding for more local Tamil content started since 2012, and it is now going nationwide in order to get more locally-produced programmes aired.