Digital television in Malaysia

Free-to-air

In 2005, the Ministry of Information announced its plan to digitise nationwide free-to-air TV broadcasts, led by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM).^[3] Trial broadcasts were conducted involving one thousand households in the Klang Valley from September 2006 to February 2007. According to then-Deputy Minister of Information Chia Kwang Chye, the trial received "very positive" feedback; he noted that "more than 60 percent said the quality of the signal ranged from good to better. Over 88 percent said the picture quality improved, while 70 percent said the sound quality was better".^[4]

Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek anticipated that RTM would complete its digitisation in 2012 as part of a three-year restructuring process.^[5] It was expected that each household, once equipped with the necessary equipment—such as a set-top box, iDTV, or DHD set—would receive up to 19 channels. Seven of these were to fall under RTM, with the rest allocated to private broadcasters such as TV3, ntv7, 8TV, and TV9.^[6] In addition to simulcasting TV1 and TV2, RTM aired RTMi, Muzik Aktif, and Arena exclusively on the digital TV platform, testing on UHF channel 44 modulated at 64QAM.^[7] RTM also planned to launch regional channels for each state and territory in Malaysia, increasing the total to 20 television channels.^[8] Media Prima began trials in March 2009.^[9]

Malaysia and all other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members—except the Philippines (which selected ISDB-T) and Cambodia and Laos (which selected DTMB)—selected DVB-T as the final DTV standard. They expected to switch off analogue broadcasts completely by 2015.^[10] In June 2008, participants of the 6th ASEAN Digital Broadcast Meeting, comprising seven Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, agreed to finalise the specifications of the DTV set-top box for use within ASEAN and to set up an ASEAN HD Centre to provide training on HDTV content to regional broadcasters.^[11]

Despite the success of RTM's pilot trials, the digital terrestrial television transition faced several issues. These problems stemmed from content providers' lack of enthusiasm toward digitisation—with the exception of Les' Copaque—and the need to improve the nation's Internet broadband infrastructure. After Abdullah Badawi resigned as Prime Minister in 2008, the RTM project was deferred indefinitely.^{[citation needed]}

Future

Although Telekom Malaysia (TM) was rumoured to be building a digital terrestrial television infrastructure, TM focused on improving the broadband infrastructure to increase the country's internet readiness, which led to the creation of Unifi.

On 8 January 2014, Puncak Semangat was awarded the concession for digital terrestrial television development. The company was obligated to develop the digital terrestrial television infrastructure, including a digital multimedia hub and a network of high, medium, and low-powered digital TV transmitters nationwide capable of carrying up to 45 standard-definition or 15 high-definition digital TV channels initially. Television and radio services were to be offered first; connected services (catch-up TV and video on demand), t-commerce (television commerce), and soft services (e-learning applications and SMS voting) would be delivered later via home broadband networks.^[12]

The first rollout was scheduled to start on 16 April 2015 (originally expected in the third quarter of 2014),^[12] using Puncak Semangat's "inside-out" rollout strategy. This strategy targeted rural areas for analogue switch-off first, followed by suburban and eventually urban areas, because free-to-air television benefits rural populations more than urban and suburban residents who already subscribe to pay television services like Astro and HyppTV.^[12] The rollout was scheduled to complete in 2017,^[13] covering 98% of Malaysia's population with a capacity of up to 80 television channels and between 30 and 40 radio stations.^[12]

Once the full digital platform was rolled out, analogue television broadcasts were to be terminated.^[14]

Analogue switch-off

Analogue TV broadcasts were originally scheduled to be shut down in stages, completing by 2014 as per ASEAN recommendations. The DTT migration plan was divided into three phases:^[15]

1. Phase I (2007–2013)
   • Analogue TV & DTT co-exist
   • Analogue TV shut down in stages
   • Vacating of other primary services (radar and LMS)
2. Phase II (2014–29 September 2019)
   • No analogue TV service
   • Vacating of DTT service using channels 56 and above
   • Vacating of LMS in band 477 MHz to 478 MHz
3. Phase III (30 September 2019 – 31 October 2019)
   • 100% DTT service using channels 5 to 12 and 21 to 54

Analogue television broadcasts were eventually rescheduled for 2017, but the transition was completed after the full rollout of the digital platform.^[14] The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) announced in late September that the full digital transition would be completed on 31 October 2019, the date when analogue TV broadcasting for the remaining states of Sabah and Sarawak would end.^[16] The switchover in West Malaysia was fully completed on 1 October at 12:30 AM (UTC+8),^[17] while the final switchover in East Malaysia was completed on 31 October, also at 12:30 AM as scheduled. This marked the end of analogue television broadcasting in Malaysia, making it the third country in Southeast Asia, after Singapore and Brunei, to undergo a successful transition to digital television.^{[1][18][19][20]}

Paid terrestrial television

In 2006, U Television (formerly MiTV) was scheduled to roll out broadcast services in the H.264 video format according to DVB-T standards to achieve better picture quality and more efficient frequency bandwidth usage, after an earlier venture with an IPTV-over-UHF system failed.^[21]