MYTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd (MYTV) is a Malaysian television broadcasting company based in Cyberjaya, Selangor. It provides free digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the country, considered first of its kind.[1] The DTT service is officially branded as myFreeview since August 2015, though the legal name of the company remained unchanged.[2] A billion MYR deal has been signed with Telekom Malaysia to distribute the services.[3][4][5][6][7]
Taiwanese company Allion Labs, Inc. has been awarded accreditation from the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM) to become the first lab facility for digital television in Malaysia.[11] Around 30 channels have been set to broadcast in the first stage.[12] HbbTV services are also integrated into MYTV service with the usage of Sofia Digital's HbbTV technology.[13][14] East Coast Peninsular Malaysia has been chosen as the first site for testing, followed by East Malaysia, and northern and southern Peninsular Malaysia before reaching Klang Valley. According to MYTV, the initial annual rental fee for a 24-hour free-to-air TV channel was RM12 million for an SDTV channel and RM25 million for an HDTV channel.[7] However, following reports of Media Prima might quit free-to-air transmission due to unviable fees,[15] MYTV may introduce bandwidth based charging, which is already in consideration. On a statement given by MYTV CEO, Michael Chan announced that transmission fees will be waived until June 2018, when Malaysia completes DTT migration by terminating analogue transmission. Rebates will be also given on a case-by-case basis for six months up to the end of 2018. He is also looking to bring the transmission fee down to between RM8 million and RM18 million, since the Malaysian TV market do not accept fees of RM12 million or RM25 million per channel.[9][16]
According to former Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek, the MYTV Basic decoder was initially distributed to around two million Malaysian households.[17] All 2 million households had now been determined and it would be sent to recipients house via PosLaju.[18] MYTV has signed an agreement with Pensonic to distribute MYTV Advance set top box exclusively on 29 November 2016.[19] Digital televisions with "DTTV Malaysia" certification can also be used to receive transmission.[5][20][4] While households that are not listed as recipients of government aid can purchased the certified DVB-T2 decoders or Integrated Digital TV (IDTV) from local distributor.
There are currently 11 radio and 16 television Channels listed on MYTV, as approved by Ministry of Communications.[22]
