Malaysian television broadcasting was introduced on 28 December 1963. Colour television was introduced on 28 December 1978. Full-time colour transmissions were officially inaugurated on New Year's Day 1982. There are currently 14 national free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Malaysia and 3 national pay subscription television operators in Malaysia.
History Plans for a television network began to be outlined in February 1960, two and a half years after Malaysia achieved its independence, on 8 January 1962, it was decided that a 1963 launch target was set. Canadian technicians arrived to Malaysia in early 1963, to assist in its setup. Broadcasts started on 28 December 1963, opened by prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. Initially, the station in Kuala Lumpur broadcast on channel 10, but moved to channel 5 on 16 May 1964. The first expansion was in Ipoh and Malacca in April 1964 and then Penang and Johor by July. The pilot service became regular on 6 July. Malaysia had a two-channel plan outlined, similar to Singapore (Singapore started television on 15 February 1963, before its brief integration into Malaysia, yet its television service was independent from the service from Kuala Lumpur). Arrival of new equipment from the United Kingdom implied the creation of the second network, which was initially due July 1964. In July 1968, the plan was formalised with an 8 February 1969 launch target. Before the launch, the existing TV Malaysia channel started broadcasting on spare frequencies in its coverage area in order to clear out the existing frequencies for a six-day Quranic reading competition between 14 and 19 December. The 8 February target was failed, being delayed to 17 November. Tunku Abdul Rahman opened the second channel, coinciding with the opening of Television House, and started at 9pm. Most of the first night on air consisted solely of the variety special Anekarama Angkasapuri. On 31 August 1975, television broadcasts in Sarawak began. Colour television began on RTM1 on 28 December 1978, the fifteenth anniversary of the launch of television, and on RTM2 on 7 May 1979.
Broadcasting Transmissions in Malaysia were black-and-white until 28 December 1978, when colour transmissions were introduced. First stereo audio broadcasting was introduced in 1985 by TV3. Five out of eight channels do not have 24-hour schedule. 24-hour television was introduced in Malaysia between 13 and 16 May 1989 on TV1. The first 24-hour broadcasting in Malaysia was introduced in 1997 by TV3, but was discontinued later due to energy-saving plan (see below). Since April 2006, TV2 broadcast round-the-clock followed by TV1, which began broadcasting 24 hours in August 2012 after having short-lived round-the-clock broadcast previously.
Television providers Subscription providers are available, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the programme guide (EPG), video on demand (VOD), high-definition (HD), interactive television via the red button, and coverage across Malaysia. Set-top boxes are generally used to receive these services. Households viewing TV from the internet also tracked by the Malaysian government.
Analogue terrestrial television This was the traditional way of receiving television in Malaysia, however it is being supplanted by digital providers. There are eight channels; three of them are government public-owned by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM). The three television channels are terrestrial free-to-air TV1, TV2 and Okey (formerly TVi). TV Alhijrah is owned by Alhijrah Media Corporation while TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9 are private and commercially owned by Media Prima. Worldview Broadcasting Channel was commercial-owned by Worldview Broadcasting Channel (M) Sdn Bhd. It has since closed down in October 2012 after they were unable to operate the channel due to financial difficulties. Analogue terrestrial transmissions were scheduled to be switched off in phases as part of the digital switchover, expected to be completed in 2020 as a recommendation from Southeast Asia. On 31 December 2018, digital television consortium MYTV Broadcasting scheduled the switchoff on third quarter 2019, to allow a period of digital set-top box distribution to eligible viewers with low income. The frequency has been moved to avoid signal jamming with television in Thailand and preventing Singaporeans from watching foreign-copyrighted programming, especially that contains Chinese dialects (mainly in Cantonese and Hokkien) on free-to-air, due to tight censorship currently in place in Singapore. The analogue were indefinitely switched off nationwide on 31 October 2019.
Digital terrestrial television
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