It looks like Malaysian television is going completely digital starting this year!
Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo recently announced that analogue television broadcasts will be shut down by the third quarter of 2019, and will be making the complete migration to digital starting April this year (2019).
Source: The Malaysian Reserve
The minister was quoted by The Star as saying,
“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.”
Gobind Singh stated this in reply to a question posed by Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin (BN-Rompin) at the Dewan Rakyat today (2nd April), which inquired about the government’s plan to shut down the country’s analogue television system.
The Communications and Multimedia Minister added that currently, MYTV was implementing the National Broadcast Digitalisation and there’s now Digital Television Terrestrial (DTT) in 98% of populated areas. On top of that, Gobind Singh also stated that Direct to Home (DTH) broadcasts via satellite will also be provided by MYTV, and is set to cover blind spots across the country.
Source: CBS News
“Digital TV coverage can be enjoyed by the people throughout the country today if they install a TV decoder and a UHF aerial on their existing TV set or buy a TV set equipped iDTV decoder or a DTH decoder set,” he stated.
Analogue television technology uses analogue signals to transmit video and audio, and can be wireless (terrestrial and satellite TV), or distributed over a cable network (cable TV).
What do you think of this transition? Let us know in the comments section!
Also read: Penangites Can Get Free High-Speed Internet for 6 Months Starting 1st March, Here’s Why
