Television in Malaysia
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Malaysian television broadcasting was introduced on 28 December 1963.
Broadcasting
Transmissions in Malaysia were
Television providers
Subscription providers are available, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the
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 |
Analogue terrestrial television
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]
Digital terrestrial television
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,
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
Satellite television
Malaysia's sole
Television
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.[
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
Cable TV
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.
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)
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.
However,
After that,
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.[12] HyppTV is rebranded as Unifi TV starting from 12 January 2018.[13]
Mobile TV
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.[14] Yet, Maxis is expected to roll out broadcast mobile TV services based on DVB-H in the near future.[15]
U Mobile also provides broadcast mobile TV to users of selected 3G phones, also based on DVB-H.[16]
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
Live streaming
Television received via the Internet may be free, subscription or pay-per-view,
Most-viewed channels
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% |
Channels from neighbouring countries
See also
- List of television stations in Malaysia
- List of Malay language television channels
References
- ^ "Malaysians can enjoy 15 free channels on myFreeview digital TV service". 24 May 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- ^ Mohsin Abdullah (19 October 2012). "WBC employees seek HR ministry's help". fz.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- ^ Chester Tay (31 December 2018). "Malaysia to switch off analogue TV signals by end-March 2019". The Edge Markets. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
- ^ "Negara ucap selamat tinggal kepada TV analog" [The country says goodbye to analogue TV]. Bernama (in Malay). Astro Awani. 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ "Malaysia Beralih Kepada Siaran TV Digital Secara Sepenuhnya Pada 31 Oktober 2019" [Malaysia Turns Into Digital TV Broadcast On 31 October 2019] (PDF) (Press release) (in Malay). Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. 2 April 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ "Sabah and Sarawak switch to digital TV". The Star. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ "Now entire nation enjoys digital TV broadcast". Bernama. The Borneo Post. 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ "Malaysia to launch digital TV trial program". People's Daily Online (China). 6 October 2005. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- ^ "Malaysia adopts DVB-T standard for digital broadcast transmissions". ABU. 28 March 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- ^ Lee Yen Mun (21 November 2011). "Free satellite TV". The Star. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- Business Times. Archived from the originalon 20 June 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). Telekom Malaysia. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- ^ Qishin Tariq (15 January 2018). "HyppTV rebrands as unifi TV". The Star. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- ^ "Maxis 3G in Action – Maxis TV". Maxis Communications. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- ^ "Maxis completes DVB-H trial". Mobile World. 28 August 2007. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2008.
- ^ J. Timbuong (20 September 2007). "U Mobile is newest cellular service provider". The Star. Retrieved 21 June 2008.