Put away your bunny-ear antennae, Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Ministry has confirmed that they expect to fully cease broadcasting analogue television broadcasts by the third quarter of the year.
Minister Gobind Singh Deo made the statement today during Question Time in the Lower House of Parliament, adding that the process of migrating to digital will begin this month. He added that the ministry hopes the move will be complete by June.
“In whatever circumstances, we are quite confident that there will be a full shutdown by the third quarter of this year,” he affirmed.
Responding to a query from opposition MP Hasan Arifin, he added that the digital coverage had reached 98% of Malaysia’s populated areas, and that the implementation was being handled by MYTV. He added that the company is also serving customers who live in digital “blind spots” a Direct to Home (DTH) broadcast via satellite.
“Digital TV coverage can be enjoyed by the people throughout the country today if they install TV decoder and UHF aerial on their existing TV set, or buy a TV set equipped with an iDTV decoder or a DTH decoder set.”
We’re gonna have to stop you right here Minister – this is sounding far too complicated for our analogue brains.
Those who are considered to be in a low-income household are eligible to receive free DTT, or DTH decoders. Hopefully along with someone who understands all of this malarkey.
As of the end of last month, over two million have been distributed to poorer families.
