MyTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd will be launching its five core services for the digital terrestrial television (DTT) switchover in the second quarter of next year instead of after the analogue switch off in 2016, as originally intended.

The five services are TV and radio (both accessible via DTT broadcast), connected services, transaction commerce and soft services (accessible via broadband or 4G LTE).

MyTV chief commercial officer Haniza Ros Nasaruddin said the five services for the DTT project would be the key drivers of the company’s revenue.

“The five are a combination of the traditional revenue that’s now being applied in any other mature market and our own business model, which we are generating not just for MyTV but for content players to actually earn more on top of advertising revenue,” she said in an interview with The Edge Financial Daily.

“When it comes to the participation of viewers, there are some methods that we are going to introduce. The more it’s used, the more income will be generated,” she added.

MyTV chief operating officer Mohamed Redzwan Yahya said apart from advertising revenue, the company had worked out a number of other ways to collaborate with its subscribers.

“We offer subscriber management systems because we know who the owners of the set top boxes (STB) are, so we can work together with, say, a pay TV operator and go on a revenue share basis,” he said.

“We also have what we call a playout centre for new operators who do not want to invest in building a TV station but have content. This may be in line with broadcasters who want to go on retail, meaning they only want to transmit for a few hours a day,” said Redzwan.

MyTV cannot charge incumbent broadcasters like TV1, TV2, and TV3 for their services during the two year simulcast period — when both analogue and digital broadcasting services will be simultaneously available.

But new operators and content providers who have expressed interest in MyTV will not enjoy the same exemption.

“I can only say that the capacity we have may not be enough,” Redzwan said when asked who are the potential new parties that will subscribe to MyTV’s services.

MyTV is a special purpose vehicle set up by Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd to build and operate the infrastructure and network facilities for the DTT project. Puncak Semangat is wholly-owned by the Al-Bukhary group, which in turn is controlled by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.
MyTV’s shareholders are Altel Holdings Sdn Bhd, Tan Sri Zainol Anwar and Datuk Abdullah Kadir Bacha.

The DTT project is part of a digital switchover initiative, in which analogue free-to-air broadcasting services will be replaced by digital transmission.

The initial migration to digital will be for government-owned and private stations, namely TV1, TV2, TV3, ntv7, 8TV, TV9, TV Al-Hijrah and Bernama TV.

Puncak Semangat was awarded the contract in April, beating REDtone Network Sdn Bhd and i-Media Broadcasting Solutions Sdn Bhd, which had initially raised eyebrows as many did not see Puncak Semangat as having the expertise to carry out the large-scale project.

To that, Redzwan said he was proud the core team responsible for the project was local.

“We know that other operators in Southeast Asia are looking at us and how we implement this. So there is that added pressure to prove that we can do it,” he said.

At the time of writing, MyTV was in the midst of finalising 16 or 17 tender packages for different components of the project, which would be opened for bidding possibly as early as the end of this month. – The Edge Financial Daily, August 18, 2014.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/business/article/mytv-to-offer-services-a-year-earlier-than-planned#sthash.w2Ssu5q7.dpuf