Gobind: Full shutdown of analogue TV broadcast by third quarter of 2019

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The Communications and Multimedia Ministry is confident that analogue television broadcast will be switched off by the third quarter of this year for a complete transition to digital broadcast.

Its Minister Gobind Singh Deo said the migration process from analogue to digital would start this month.

"We are in the process of an analogue shutdown as we want to start the digital system throughout Malaysia. I can say our effort to shut down analogue broadcasts and launch digital television will start this month and we hope it will be completed by June.

"In whatever circumstances, we are quite confident that there will be a full shutdown by the third quarter of this year," he said during Ministers' Question Time at Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (April 2).

He was replying to a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin (BN-Rompin) on the government's plan to shut down the analogue television system in the country.

Gobind said the National Broadcast Digitalisation being implemented by MYTV was proceeding smoothly, with Digital Television Terrestrial (DTT) coverage in up to 98% of populated areas.

He said MYTV was also providing Direct to Home (DTH) broadcasts via satellite to cover blind spots in the country.

"Digital TV coverage can be enjoyed by the people throughout the country today if they install a TV decoder and an UHF aerial on their existing TV set or buy a TV set equipped iDTV decoder or a DTH decoder set," he said.

He added that as at March 30, MYTV had distributed two million decoders comprising 1,651,333 DTT decoders and 24,482 DTH decoders to eligible low-income households (B40).

He was replying to the original question by Hasan on whether MYTV would be continued and the outcome of the discussion between MYTV and Telekom Malaysia Berhad.

Commenting further, Gobind said the negotiation between MYTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd and TM on Nov 30 last year have resolved several commercial issues. – Bernama