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When I first started working from home, it was great — I didn’t need to jostle with peak-hour crowds, and there was no stress deciding what to wear (unless I had a client video call).
Then Circuit Breaker happened, and the restaurant my husband worked at decided to temporarily cease operations, and my friends’ children started their home-based learning.
Having a bored partner at home, or needing to find ways to keep the kids occupied can be a challenge. Even for singletons, there’s only so much to do at home.
Having tightened my purse strings myself, it’s welcome news that Singtel CAST is now offering a FREE viewing of 30 channels, from now till end-June 2020 — Hoorah! Time to bond over our favourite shows!
There’s a good selection of programmes, from English series, HK/Korean dramas and music to education and children’s shows. Here’s a closer look at some of the highlight shows available.
For the little ones
Who hasn’t heard of the adorable Paw Patrol pooches or the iconic We Bare Bears brothers?
Follow the six brave puppies, captained by a tech-savvy 10-year-old boy, Ryder, on Nickelodeon Junior, on Mondays to Fridays, at 11.10am. With themes of teamwork, friendship and kindness, it’s perfect for your preschooler.
Next up are the three brother bears on Cartoon Network, on Mondays to Fridays, at 12pm. Watch them make friends with humans, look for food, stack atop one another to go exploring, and stumble into awkward situations.
| Both Nick Jr and Cartoon Network are on Singtel CAST’s Learning Plus pack (usual price: $5.90/month). |
For the Asian show lover
You don’t need to be an ajumma (“auntie” in Korean) to like Korean dramas. Many guys — my husband included — are fans of Kdramas, as well as Mandarin and Hong Kong serials.
Get an inside look at the everyday lives of your favourite celebrities and their personal lives in I Live Alone on oh!K every Saturday at 10.50pm. The program shows viewers how single celebrities live, and has grown in popularity due to the relatability of the single lifestyles of various celebrities.
Or tune in to Endless Love, premiering on 19 April 2020, on Jia Le Channel, on Saturdays and Sundays, at 7pm. This tearjerker follows Shu, whose biggest dream is to bear a husband a son. However, there are challenges she needs to overcome — it’s difficult for her to conceive despite trying everything, and when she finally falls pregnant, her happy beginning becomes a painful choice when she is diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer. Choose her own life, or the tiny life growing inside her?
Need some variety show entertainment from the comfort of your armchair? Infinite Challenge on KIX on Tuesdays at 10pm showcases 6 Korean artistes as the “players” who need to find their way around a virtual reality world.
The free preview also includes channels in Cantonese (cHK), Mandarin (Celestial Classic Movies), Korean (oh!K), Bahasa Indonesia (MNC Drama) and Tamil (Colours Tamil).
| Jia Le Channel and cHK are available on Singtel CAST’s Chinese Plus pack (usual price: $5.90/month), while KIX is available on the Entertainment Plus pack (usual price: $5.90/month). |
For those with a thirst for knowledge
Go BIG! on knowledge with this engineering and architecture series on Discovery Channel, every Wednesday at 10.50pm. Top Gear fans will also be chuffed to see Richard Hammond going behind-the-scenes of the world’s longest underground railway tunnel and more.
On HISTORY channel, tune in to Mountain Men Season 8 on Saturdays at 8.05pm. Find out about the lives of men in America who still live off the land, gathering, hunting and trapping in the unforgiving mountains to feed their families — and to simply, survive.
| Both Discovery Channel and HISTORY are available on Singtel CAST’s Education Plus pack (usual price: $5.90/month) |
For foodies, comedy fans and everyone in-between
For the hungry foodies among us, now’s the best time to up your cooking game. Learn more about the ins and outs of preparing a delish home-cooked meal with Malaysian chef Sherson as he and his mum Ann whip up familiar favourites for the family in Family Kitchen with Sherson (S4) on the Asian Food Network, on Saturdays, 7pm.
For a bellyful of laughs, join this Crazy Rich Asians star on her own sitcom, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, on Comedy Central on Wednesdays, 10pm. The show is inspired by her life experience growing up in the outer borough of New York.
And wrap up work-from-home weeknights with the Late Late Show with James Corden on Blue Ant Entertainment, from 11.30pm. Join the host and his mix of celebrity guests, edgy music acts, games and sketches.
| Asian Food Network is available on Singtel CAST’s Lifestyle Plus pack (usual price: $5.90/month) while both Blue Ant Entertainment and Comedy Central are in the Entertainment Plus pack (usual price: $5.90/month). |
Singtel CAST — non-stop entertainment for everyone
From now to 30 June 2020, Singtel CAST is making 30 channels available for free streaming — that’s over 64,000 hours of shows — just create a CAST ID here to redeem your free access.
The channels (sorted by category) are:
Entertainment
- HITS (English)
- KIX (English)
- Lifetime (English)
- Blue Ant Entertainment (English)
- Comedy Central (English)
- MTV Live (English)
- MTV (English)
Kids
- Boomerang (English)
- Cartoon Network (English)
- Nickelodeon Junior (English)
- Nickelodeon (English)
- Miao Mi (Mandarin)
Education
- Crime and Investigation (English)
- HISTORY™ (English)
- HISTORY2™ (English)
- Discovery (English)
- Animal Planet (English)
- Discovery Asia (English)
- Discovery Science (English)
Lifestyle
- Asian Food Network (English)
- DMAX (English)
Chinese Entertainment/Infotainment
- ETTV Asia News (Mandarin)
- CCTV-4 (Mandarin)
- CTI Asia (Mandarin)
- Jia Le (Hokkien/Mandarin)
- cHK (Cantonese)
Other Entertainment
- Celestial Classic Movies (Mandarin)
- oh!K (Korean)
- MNC Drama Channel (Bahasa Indonesian)
- Colours Tamil (Tamil)
If you like these Singtel CAST channels and want to keep watching, each CAST Pack starts from an affordable $5.90/month for at least 7 LIVE channels. Choose from Chinese Plus, Lifestyle Plus, Learning Plus and more.
Other add-on channels include Viu Premium (from just $4.90/month) and HBO GO ($13.98/month with 2 months free on the 12-month contract).
What I like is that there are no-contract plans, and you don’t even need to collect/install a cumbersome set-top box to get started on Singtel CAST. Some shows can even be downloaded to your mobile phone, to watch later.
Redeem your Singtel CAST free preview here.
How do you keep boredom at bay on a tight budget? Let us know in the comments below!
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