Thursday 15 June 2017

Tamil free-to-air terrestrial TV station in Malaysia?



Currently there are nine free-to-air terrestrial television stations in Malaysia such as:

==RTM==
- TV1 (Malay Infotainment)
- TV2 (Malay majority, English, Chinese, Tamil)

==Media Prima==
- TV3 (Malay General)
- NTV7 (Chinese General and English)
- 8TV (Chinese Entertainment)
- TV9 (Malay and Indonesian)

- TV Alhijrah (Malay Islamic)
- Bernama News Channel (Malay-English news channel)

BUT.... There is no any Tamil free-to-air TV channel for Indian community in Malaysia yet after decline of Channel 9.

Channel 9 was used to broadcast Tamil block programmes. In 2004, Channel 9 was owned by Anaza Sdn Bhd which also operated Time Highway Radio. It was acquired by Media Prima in 2005 due to financial crisis. Seriously, currently Indians targeted TV shows (Bollywood, Kollywood) are aired on TV2, TV3, NTV7 partially. After Channel 9 was rebranded to TV9, Indian community was heavily discriminated of watching Tamil free to air TV.

NTV7 was used to air Bollywood movies which was known as "Stars Of India" on every Sunday 4-7pm many years ago.

In 2012, Astro launched its free satellite TV, known as NJOI. Astro Vaanavil (CH201) finally became free-to-air TV in Malaysia, but not terrestrial one, also with Makkal TV. In my opinion, Astro Vellithirai also should be added to NJOI free channels.

Media Prima Berhad had captured Malay and Chinese markets majority for free to air TV business, together with minor English market. Among all Media Prima TV stations, 4 of them carry Malay and Chinese TV programmes majority.

myFreeView (MYTV Broadcasting), a free-to-air digital terrestrial TV (via DVB-T2) in Malaysia which owned by Syed Mokhtar under Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd was launched officially on 6th June 2017. Analog terrestrial television will be closed down on June 2018 in Malaysia.

myFreeView has 9 TV channels, 4 RTM radio stations, and 2 test TV channels. It will add more channels to 30 in the future. I think they should launch at least a Tamil TV channel for Indian community in Malaysia.

Media Prima already capture Chinese and Malay TV markets majority in Malaysia, why not they can capture Indian TV markets by launching a Tamil language majority free to air TV in Malaysia?

By launching Tamil commercial TV in Malaysia, they can broadcast Bollywood, Kollywood, Tamil dramas, and Tamil news on the TV. So, it results end of monopoly for RTM TV2 Tamil programme.

==History of commercial TV in Malaysia==

- TV3 in 1984 to end monopoly of RTM
- TV4 or Metrovision in 1995
- NTV7 in 1998 to end monopoly of RTM TV2 (English and Chinese) and TV3
- Channel 9 to end monopoly of RTM TV2 (Tamil) in 2003, but declined in 2005
- 8TV in 2004 to end monopoly of RTM TV2 (Chinese)

If a Tamil free-to-air TV is not successful, but at least the TV operators add Tamil programme on their existing station.

Additional remark: GoAsean TV was already ceased transmission from Astro CH737 on 12th June 2017, actually GoAsean TV can go to myFreeView as Malaysia first travel terrestrial TV channel.



1 comment:

  1. TV2 Malaysia broadcast CCTN 47 Programs. It has Malay subtitles including Kdrama, etc. BERITA DI DUABELAS is Balita sa Alas Dose.

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