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Malaysian television broadcasting was introduced on 28 December 1963. Colour television was introduced on 28 December 1978. Full-time colour transmissions were officially inaugurated on New Year's Day 1982. There are currently 16 national free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Malaysia and 3 national pay subscription television operators in Malaysia.
Transmissions in Malaysia were black-and-white until 28 December 1978, when colour transmissions were introduced. First stereo audio broadcasting was introduced in 1985 by TV3. Five out of eight channels do not have 24-hour schedule. 24-hour television was introduced in Malaysia between 13 and 16 May 1989 on TV1. The first 24-hour broadcasting in Malaysia was introduced in 1997 by TV3, but was discontinued later due to energy-saving plan (see below). Since April 2006, TV2 broadcast round-the-clock followed by TV1, which began broadcasting 24 hours in August 2012 after having short-lived round-the-clock broadcast previously.
Subscription providers are available, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the programme guide (EPG), video on demand (VOD), high-definition (HD), interactive television via the red button, and coverage across Malaysia. Set-top boxes are generally used to receive these services. Households viewing TV from the internet also tracked by the Malaysian government.
| Provider | Free or pay | No. broadcast channels | VOD | HD | Red button | Transmission | Streaming Apps | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MYTV | Free-to-air | 27 (TV and Radio) [1] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital terrestrial television and Digital satellite | MYTV ManaMana | MYTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd |
| Astro | Free and Pay TV (Bill) | 175 (TV and Radio) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital satellite and IPTV (Both Multicast and Unicast) | Astro GO | Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd (Astro) |
| NJOI | Free and Pay TV (Prepaid) | 164 (TV and Radio) | No | Yes | Yes | Digital satellite | NJOI Now (Discontinued) | |
| Unifi TV | Free and Pay TV | 74 (TV and Radio) | Yes | Yes | Yes | IPTV | Unifi TV (app) | Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) |
| Sirius TV | Pay TV | 13 (TV) | No | No | Yes | Digital satellite | - | Smart Digital International Sdn Bhd |
This was the traditional way of receiving television in Malaysia, however it is being supplanted by digital providers. There are eight channels; three of them are government public-owned by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM). The three television channels are terrestrial free-to-air TV1, TV2 and Okey (formerly TVi). TV Alhijrah is owned by Alhijrah Media Corporation while TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9 are private and commercially owned by Media Prima. Worldview Broadcasting Channel was commercial-owned by Worldview Broadcasting Channel (M) Sdn Bhd. It has since closed down in October 2012 after they were unable to operate the channel due to financial difficulties. [2] Analogue terrestrial transmissions were scheduled to be switched off in phases as part of the digital switchover, expected to be completed in 2020 as a recommendation from Southeast Asia. On 31 December 2018, digital television consortium MYTV Broadcasting scheduled the switchoff on third quarter 2019, to allow a period of digital set-top box distribution to eligible viewers with low income. [3] The frequency has been moved to avoid signal jamming with television in Thailand and preventing Singaporeans from watching foreign-copyrighted programming, especially that contains Chinese dialects (mainly in Cantonese and Hokkien) on free-to-air, due to tight censorship currently in place in Singapore. The analogue were indefinitely switched off nationwide on 31 October 2019. [4] [5] [6] [7]
In 2005, the Ministry of Information announced their plan to digitalise nationwide free-to-air TV broadcasts led by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM). [8] Trial broadcasts were undertaken, involving one thousand households in the Klang Valley from September 2006 till February 2007. According to the then-Deputy Minister of Information, Chia Kwang Chye, the trial received "very positive" feedback, i.e. "more than 60 percent said the quality of the signal ranged from good to very good. Over 88 percent said the picture quality improved, while 70 percent said the sound quality was better". [9]
On 1 January 2008, TV3 announced that they were carrying out their own tests using a completely different system, T-DMB. However their test transmission is available only to areas surrounding their main headquarters at Sri Pentas, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya. The test signals consists of a single DAB stream, Fly FM, and two T-DMB streams, TV3 and a Hot Visual, which carries a slide show with audio signal streamed from the radio station Hot FM.
Despite a success of RTM's pilot trials, the digital terrestrial television transition faced many problems. These problems stemmed from the lesser enthusiasm of content providers toward the digitisation, with the exception of Les Copaque, and the need to improve the nation's Internet broadband infrastructure. With the resignation of then Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and the succession of Najib Tun Razak, the project by RTM was deferred indefinitely.
The advent of digital television has facilitiated Malaysia's constituent regions to launch their own public broadcasters: Sarawak's state government officially launched TVS on October 2020 after a 6-year trial period since 2014, [10] Sabah followed suit launching the TV Sabah mobile streaming service on April 2023 with plans to establish its own station [11] more than 40 years after the dissolving of its previous incarnation under RTM's Third Network in 1984. [12]
Malaysia's sole satellite television operator, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems (a subsidiary of Astro Malaysia Holdings) launched the Astro service in launch of the MEASAT-1 satellite as part of Malaysia's commercialisation of space, Astro commenced broadcasting on 1 June 1996 with an initial offering of 3 radio stations and 22 television channels. Today, Astro has over 160 TV channels and Radio Stations, as well as 25 HD channels. They have also started their IPTV service in 2013.
| Channel | Name | Language | Owner | Group | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TV1 | Malay | RTM | Free-to-air | Terrestrial |
| 2 | TV2 | ||||
| 3 | TV3 | STMB | |||
| 4 | Astro Ria | Astro | Astro channels | Satellite | |
| 5 | Astro SuperSport | English | |||
| 6 | Astro AEC | Chinese | |||
| 7 | Astro Wah Lai Toi | Cantonese | |||
| 8 | Astro Vaanavil | Tamil | |||
| 9 | CNN International | English | CNN | News | |
| 10 | Discovery Channel | English (Malay subtitles) | Discovery Communications | Education | |
| 11 | NBC Asia | National Geographic Society | |||
| 12 | ESPN | English | ESPN | Sports | |
| 13 | STAR Sports | STAR TV | |||
| 14 | HBO | English (Malay subtitles) | HBO | Movies | |
| 15 | STAR Movies | STAR TV | |||
| 16 | MGM Gold | Metro Goldwyn Mayer | |||
| 17 | Cartoon Network | Cartoon Network | Animated | ||
| 18 | Disney Channel | English (Malay subtitles) | The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia | ||
| 19 | STAR World | English | STAR TV | Entertainment | |
| 20 | Channel [V] | ||||
| 21 | MTV Asia | MTV Networks | |||
| 22 | Phoenix Chinese Channel | Chinese | Phoenix Satellite Television | Jade | |
| 23 | STAR Chinese Movies | Cantonese (Malay subtitles) | STAR TV | ||
| 24 | CCTV-4 | Chinese | China Central Television (CCTV) |
It currently holds exclusive rights from the Malaysian government to offer satellite television broadcasting services in the country through the year 2017. The rights was extended to 2022 recently.[ citation needed ] However, today Astro contains more than 100 channels including local and international channels and radio channels.
There are also laws preventing too many advertisements from being aired on both radio and television, similar to the United Kingdom.[ citation needed ]
In December 2011, former prime minister Najib Tun Razak announced that the free-to-view satellite television service by Astro, NJOI, will be made available from February 2012 onwards. [13]
Mega TV was launched in 1995 by TV3 as the only cable television service. However, it faced stiff competition from the satellite television network Astro, and failed to expand its content. Because of this, it closed down in 2001, and was replaced by its competitor since then. [ citation needed ] In 2013, ABN Networks launched their Cable TV service together with Fiber Optic Internet as ABNXcess yet the network also failed to compete with Astro.
In contrast to Internet TV, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) refers to services operated and controlled by a single company, who may also control the 'Final Mile' to the consumers' premises.
DETV, a new paid television provider owned by REDtone, provides television and video-on-demand services on the IPTV platform, targeting the Chinese audiences in Malaysia.
However, Astro is the first broadcast company in Malaysia that introduce the IPTV services, branded as Astro IPTV in collaboration with Maxis Communications and TIME dotCom.
After that, Telekom Malaysia (TM) launched its IPTV services, currently branded as HyppTV in the second quarter of 2009, and now conducts trials with 1,000 selected households in Klang Valley, Penang and Kulim, Kedah. [14]
TM then successfully released their IPTV based on their HSBB Unifi service which only available to Unifi subscriber through nationwide. Collaboration with Astro stopped on 1 August 2016 with termination of both Astro Supersports HD and Astro Supersports 2 HD. [15] HyppTV is rebranded as Unifi TV starting from 12 January 2018. [16]
Maxis, DiGi and U Mobile provide mobile television services for reception on third generation mobile phones. They consist of a mixture of regular channels as well as made for mobile channels with looped content. Maxis TV now offers more than 20 channels to Maxis 3G subscribers who own compatible mobile phones. [17] Yet, Maxis is expected to roll out broadcast mobile TV services based on DVB-H in the near future. [18]
U Mobile also provides broadcast mobile TV to users of selected 3G phones, also based on DVB-H. [19]
In October 2008, Astro launched Astro Mobile TV which currently provides 18 channels, all of which are mobile versions of its existing channels, seven of them are under its own brand. This service is only available to Maxis subscribers with compatible 2.5G or 3G handsets, and does not reprise its role from Maxis TV.
Television received via the Internet may be free, subscription or pay-per-view, multicast, unicast, or peer-to-peer, streamed or downloaded, and use a variety of distribution technologies. Playback is normally via a computer and broadband Internet connection, although digital media receivers or media centre computers can be used for playback on televisions, such as a computer equipped with Windows Media Center.
Most-viewed networks since Q2 2023.
| Position | Channel | Group | Share of total viewing (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TV3 | Media Prima | 17% |
| 2 | 8TV | 15% | |
| 3 | NTV7 | 15% | |
| 4 | TV9 | 14% | |
| 5 | TV1 | Radio Televisyen Malaysia | 10% |
| 6 | TV2 | 9% | |
| 7 | Okey | 8% | |
| 8 | Astro Ria | Astro Holdings Sdn Bhd | 5% |
| 9 | Astro Prima | 4% | |
| 10 | Astro Ceria | 3% |
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Television in the Republic of Ireland is available through a variety of platforms. The digital terrestrial television service is known as Saorview and is the primary source of broadcast television since analogue transmissions ended on 24 October 2012. Digital satellite and digital cable are also widely used.
Digital terrestrial television is a technology for terrestrial television where television stations broadcast television content in a digital format. DTTV is a major technological advance over analog television, and has largely replaced analog television broadcast, which had been in common use since the middle of the 20th century. Test broadcasts began in 1998 with the changeover to DTTV, also known as the Analog Switchoff (ASO) or Digital Switchover (DSO), which began in 2006 and is now complete in many countries. The advantages of digital terrestrial television are similar to those obtained by digitizing platforms such as cable TV, satellite, and telecommunications: more efficient use of radio spectrum bandwidth, provision of more television channels than analog, better quality images, and potentially lower operating costs for broadcasters.
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable transmission formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously and hence can begin playing the content almost immediately.
Telekom Malaysia Berhad or simply TM is a Malaysian telecommunications company founded in 1984. Beginning as the national telecommunications company for fixed line, radio, and television broadcasting services, it has evolved to become the country's largest provider of broadband services, data, fixed line, pay television, and network services. TM ventured into the LTE space with the launch of TMgo, its 4G offering. TM's 850 MHz service was rebranded as unifi Mobile in January 2018.
DVB-H is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2004. The DVB-H specification can be downloaded from the official DVB-H website. From March 2008, DVB-H was officially endorsed by the European Union as the "preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting".
CableView Services Sdn. Bhd., operating as Mega TV was Malaysia's first ever subscription-based pay television service. It was incorporated on 18 October 1994 and began transmissions on 1 November 1995 and was operated by Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad (TV3), is a Malaysian free-to-air television network owned and operated by Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB).
Radio Televisyen Malaysia, also known as the Department of Broadcasting, Malaysia is the national public broadcaster of Malaysia, headquartered at Angkasapuri, Kuala Lumpur. Established on 1 April 1946 as Radio Malaya, it is the first and the oldest broadcaster in the country.
Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device, typically developed for that purpose. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast standards or special mobile TV transmission formats can be used. Additional features include downloading TV programs and podcasts from the Internet and storing programming for later viewing.
Freeview is New Zealand's free-to-air television platform. It is operated by a joint venture between the country's major free-to-air broadcasters – government-owned Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand, government-subsidised Whakaata Māori, and the American-owned Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Netherlands now has three major forms of broadcast digital television. Terrestrial (DVB-T), Cable (DVB-C), and Satellite (DVB-S). In addition IPTV services are available. At the end of the first quarter of 2013 almost 84% of the households in the Netherlands had some form of digital television.
In Malaysia, digital television broadcasts, DTV or DHD, can be received via cable, internet, satellite, or via free over-the-air (OTA) digital terrestrial television - much like analogue television broadcasts have been. It began in the mid-1990s with the introduction of the Astro satellite television service, now followed by new paid television services in the 2000s, as well as the digitalisation of over-the-air TV which was expected to be complete by the mid-2010s before being shelved. This article discusses various platforms where DTV is applied in Malaysia, including Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). Following its successful nationwide digital transition on 31 October 2019, the country became the third in Southeast Asia with digital broadcasts after neighbouring Brunei and Singapore.
All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator, doing business as Astro, is a Malaysian satellite television, streaming television and IPTV provider. Astro is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad and is operated by MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn. Bhd. It operates from the All Asia Broadcast Centre (AABC) in Kuala Lumpur and MEASAT in Cyberjaya.
Digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) is a digital radio transmission technology developed in South Korea as part of the national IT project for sending multimedia such as TV, radio and datacasting to mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptops and GPS navigation systems. This technology, sometimes known as mobile TV, should not be confused with Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) which was developed as a research project for the European Union.
Unifi TV is an IPTV service operated by Unifi. It was launched in 2010 as part of Unifi's bundled service offering of VoIP telephone, Internet and IPTV.
HyppSports is an in-house IPTV network in Malaysia dedicated to broadcasting sports-related content 24 hours a day. It is available exclusively on unifi TV via Channel 701 (HD) to subscribers of either stand-alone channel pack, Ultimate Pack, or any of the ethnic-curated packs.
