Muslims are the Reason Why the World Became Modern

(Unknown author as this article was viralled via the Whatsapp application)

ISLAM has always been underestimated. An American Professor imagined the World without Muslims and found out the most surprising results! Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and a University professor, highlighted an important point that overall, Muslims account for just 0.00625%. Moreover, he actually imagined a world without Muslims and the post went viral in no time as the result is actually the opposite. Muslims are the reasons why the World became modern.

The professor, Ian Bremmer, highlighted all the inventions made by Muslims, right from toothbrushes to hospitals. Without Muslims you wouldn’t have: Coffee, Cameras, Experimental Physics, Chess, Soap, Shampoo, Perfume or spirits, Irrigation, Crank-shaft, Internal Combustion Engine, Valves, Pistons Combination Locks, Architectural Innovation (pointed arch - European Gothic cathedrals adopted this technique as it made the building much stronger, rose windows, dome buildings, round towers, etc.), Surgical Instruments, Anesthesia, Windmill, Treatment of Cowpox, Fountain Pen, Numbering System, Algebra and Trigonometry, Modern Cryptology, 3 Course Meal (soup, meat or fish, fruits or nuts), Crystal Glasses, Carpets, Cheques, Gardens (used for beauty and meditation instead of for herbs and kitchen), University, Optics, Music, Toothbrush, Hospitals, Bathing, Quilting, Mariner’s Compass, Soft Drinks, Pendulum, Braille, Cosmetics, Plastic Surgery, Calligraphy, Manufacturing of Paper and Cloth, and many more.

It was a Muslim who realised that light enters our eyes, unlike the Greeks who thought we emitted rays, and so invented a camera from this discovery.

It was a Muslim who first tried to fly in 852, even though it is the Wright Brothers who have taken the credit.

It was a Muslim by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan who was known as the founder of modern Chemistry. He transformed alchemy into chemistry. He invented: distillation, purification, oxidation, evaporation, and filtration. He also discovered sulfuric and nitric acid.

It is a Muslim, by the name of Al-Jazari who is known as the father of robotics.

It was a Muslim who was the architect for Henry V’s castle.

It was a Muslim who invented hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes, a technique still used today.

It was a Muslim who actually discovered inoculation, not Jenner and Pasteur to treat cowpox. The West just brought it over from Turkey.

It was Muslims who contributed much to mathematics like Algebra and Trigonometry, which was imported over to Europe 300 years later to Fibonnaci and the rest.

It was Muslims who discovered that the Earth was round 500 years before Galileo did. The list goes on and on.

Muslims are the Reason Why the World Became Modern. Had there be no Muslims, imagine how our lives would be today? Perhaps we would still be in the dark ages?

References:

German documentary https://youtu.be/L1boEHaKAzE

British film https://youtu.be/dOsHenGodD0

BBC report https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2550624671839359&id=1391449297756908

The Changing Landscape of the Malaysian TV Industry

By Johan Ishak
www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

TELEVISION, or commonly referred to as the abbreviation ‘TV’, is about to change shape. It is suspected that TV may soon be referred to as ‘V’. ’V’ for Vision or for Video. With the wake of the digitalisation era, entertainment media businesses face a disruptive prospect, that is, the prospect of a world that platforms do not matter. A world of platform agnostic. A world of media consumption at any time you want and at any location you want. A world of information at your finger tips. A world of horrifying freedom as depicted by the BBC series, Black Mirror, but yet, a world of opportunities to make money (only if we change).

The TV landscape is changing. This is driven by changes in technology, consumption behaviour, and how business models are applied. In many countries, the TV industry is struggling. Viewers have migrated, in an exodus fashion, to on-line content streaming services (or initially referred to as the Over-the-Top (‘OTT’)). In Malaysia, the broadcasters are also on their toes and opening their eyes. Whilst the ‘Platform Agnostic’ idea is slowly creeping into the entertainment industry, broadcasters have been strategising strongly to ensure that their content is king. Investments in content is key to ensure that wherever their content goes, people will watch. There have been many debates of whether ‘Content is King’ or ‘Distribution is King’? For distribution to be king, it requires a significant change in the infrastructure. For content to be king, you just need to radiate from the creative ideas for content.

The Malaysian TV industry is not as big as many other economies. However, at 32 million population who reside in approximately 7 million TV households, it is sizeable to attract money from the advertisers’ coffers to the tune of RM2.5 billion. In 2019, Malaysia finally rolled-out its Digital Terrestrial Transmission Broadcast (‘DTTB’ or ‘DTV’) under the management of the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (‘MCMC’). Although the transmission of the digital terrestrial had already been switched on nation wide since 2017, the distribution of devices that can capture the digital terrestrial wave was only spread out in 2019. The TV broadcasters are expected to let go of the incumbent 700Mhz air wave for economic exploitation by the telecommunication industry. Meanwhile, the digital air wave to be adopted is expected to efficiently cater for the TV industry.

The TV broadcasters, both Free-to-Air (‘FTA’) and Pay TV, has begun their own restructuring to adapt to this new landscape, the landscape of TV adopting Internet of Things (‘IoT’). Media Prima Berhad (Media Prima), a FTA TV operator, who operates the number one TV station in Malaysia, TV3, had recently democratised its on-line streaming platform, tonton.com.my, from a Subscription Video on Demand (‘SVOD’) model of RM10 per month to a free platform applying the Advertising Video on Demand (‘AVOD’) model. This is because the volume of transactions on the digital space will see an increase following the DTTB initiative by the Government. Astro, a Pay TV operator, had also ventured into the free content mode by establishing Astro Enjoi set top boxes (‘STB’) that do not charge viewers monthly subscription.

Although there are many debates between SVOD and AVOD advocates, the mystery remains to which method can earn better economic outcome. Whilst Media Prima is putting its bets on the advertising model where viewers are not charged with monthly fees, Astro has split its bets onto both advertising as well as subscription models. Out of the Astro TV households, it is believed by many researchers that almost half has migrated to the free model, that is Astro Enjoi. Iflix, a new on-line content streaming service that came into the Malaysian market in 2014 is also splitting its bets by having free as well as priced content on its platform. Netflix, also a new on-line content streaming service that came into the Malaysian market in 2015 has chosen to remain as a full SVOD platform. There are other players in the market whom have also taken the same position as Netflix. They are Viu, Dim Sum, and many more. A fibre optical infrastructured content player, Unifi TV, has a slightly different model whereby their viewers enjoy free content as long as they continue to pay subscription fees for the high speed broadband services for their homes.

Whether AVOD or SVOD can make money or not, the players in the market have their own strategies that are a hybrid of retaining some legacy thinking as well as adopting the new wave in the industry. A Pay TV that charges an average subscription fees (Also known as Average Revenue Per Unit (‘ARPU’)) of, say RM100 per month, can earn annual revenues in the billions of Ringgit if they hit the subscriber numbers beyond 1 million. On the other hand, the advertising money pool (also known as ‘Adex’) in Malaysia is also in the billions of Ringgits. It is believed by many researchers that the TV industry alone accounts for RM1 billion cash revenues. This used to be RM2 billion before half of the pie got shifted to the likes of Google and Facebook. Therefore, if the money is there, for the various businesses, it is now a matter of cost structuring (or restructuring) that makes sense, content play to gain market share of eyeballs and, the most mythically believed critical success factor they call ‘Technology’.

Cinemas, video games, social media and mobile content are all the competitors to TV. TV used to be big enough to not worry about these other sources of entertainment. It is (was) like comparing Coca-Cola to Dutch Lady or comparing 'owning a car' to taxi rides. The former now seems logical when Coca-Cola faces sugar taxes and, the latter becomes inevitable when hailing services like Grab and Uber are spreading like wild mushrooms. TV will not escape the same threat. The question we should be asking is not whether people will watch competitors’ channels but whether people are doing other activities replacing the TV watching activity? When people are not watching TV, they will be facing their handphones or computers for activities such as Facebook, Instagram, League of Legend, Pubg and many more. Some are even returning back to the traditional family outing of watching movies at cinema. The challenge TV stations have now is to be present in people’s lives beyond the conventional black box we call TV. Perhaps cinemas should start showing episodic TV content in the cinema theatre itself. As for handphones, TV has found its new partner in crime they call OTT. OTT allows TV content to go beyond the normal TV set. A step towards platform agnostic.

Let us digress a bit for a fuller comprehension of the TV landscape. Ignoring cinemas, social media and mobile content, the TV industry alone has an intense intra-industry competition. As mentioned earlier, other than FTA, we also have Pay TV that normally operates via satellite or the internet. Astro is an example of a satellite TV. In fact, they are a monopoly. Unifi TV is an example of an internet TV that operates via the high speed broadband. Other internet TV, also known as OTT or streaming services are Iflix, Netflix, Viu, Dim Sum, Amazon Prime, Apple TV Plus and many more to come including the anticipated giant, Disney Plus. Within FTA itself, the 7 incumbents are TV1, TV2, TV3, ntv7, 8TV, TV9 and Al Hijrah. Under the new DTTB platform, the number of FTA channels have increased from 7 to 15 as of 21 August 2019 (the date of the first Malaysian Analogue Switch Off ('ASO') done in Langkawi). On top of that, there are new Content Applications and Service Provider ('CASP') license holders that are expected to introduce another 5 new FTA channels in 2020 under the DTTB FTA service brand myFreeview. That will increase the number of FTA channels to 20. In fact, if the Government wants, they can issue up to 50 CASP licenses.

With 20 FTA channels, or potentially 50, a market that consists of 7 million TV households or estimated 21 million pair of eyeballs (assuming a third of the population do not watch TV) and a slow growing TV Adex of RM1 billion, the word 'Dilution' becomes demonic. Out of the maximum 21 million pair of eyeballs identified as the TV universe, it is believed that only half are frequent TV viewers in Malaysia. This is gauged by observing the statistics by Nielsen’s TV Audience Measurement (‘TAM’) that uncovered that for popular content such as Buletin Utama, Majalah 3, 999 and the numerous Malay drama series, maximum unique viewers can reach up to 12 million for a particular programme. Where do the remaining half spend their time? The answer is in their pocket of their jeans. They defaulted to the Samsung’s, the Oppo’s, the Hua Wei’s of this world. When this behaviour is converted to what we should deem as the TV Universe (or rather, V Universe), it isn’t going to be 7 million anymore. It will now be 60 to 70 million devices inclusive of tablets such as iPads.

What does this really mean? Will a universe of 70 million mobile devices as opposed to 7 million TV households change the way TV players do their business? How will their strategy pivot to account for this? Will the DNA of the content change? Will the advertisers change their marketing strategy? Is the law ready to fight new or renewed battles such as IP infringements? Will there be more opportunities for production houses? And most feared of them all (questions); who will survive and who will collapse in light of the demonic 'Dilution'? As we speak, many households are already switching off their Pay TV subscriptions giving way to the new FTA channels that are being introduced by myFreeview as their preferred choice of entertainment. If we release ourselves from the cocoon of TV, we will realise that powerful quasi-TV operators have now grown out of its chrysalis into fully accepted entertainment platforms – they are Facebook videos, Instagram TV and of course, the multi channel network that accounts for 80% of Malaysian online video consumption, You Tube.

Let’s just leave You Tube and its gang out of the scope of this discussion first and put business into perspective by looking at the impact of OTT to the business transactions. As mentioned earlier, Pay TV in Malaysia earns ARPU of about RM100 per month per household. The same household that pays RM100 per month will soon (if not already) question why do they have to pay RM100? They can pay RM42 to Netflix to watch a whole bouquet of programmes that they cannot get from Pay TV especially when Pay TV works on repeats and are on looping basis. If they prefer cheaper options, they can pay RM8 per month to Iflix. They used to be able to pay RM10 per month to tonton.com.my but now they can do it for free. If 7 million households pay RM100 each per month, that accounts for RM700 million worth of subscription revenue. If RM700 million revenues are to be earned from 70 million mobile devices, then the equation, ceteris paribus, would mean that the charges per month can be reduced to RM10. So, clinically, if we are to apply a linear approach to the progression, the RM100 per month should gradually be reduced to RM10 following the pace of the migration of viewers from Pay TV to mobile content consumption.

What about FTA? What will become of its revenue earning ability? Currently, FTA TV industry earns about RM1 billion a year. It used to be RM2 billion a year. Half of it has gone to the digital media. In fact, to blame it on 'Digital' is probably not fair because in reality, there are only 2 players that have been pulling away TV Adex, they are Facebook and Google. These 2 are not entirely TV in nature although they do have huge components of video technology. TV Adex has now moved to user engagement following advertisers’ craze in targeting the millennials whom many believe, (millennials) are not have the spending power anyway. Proctor and Gamble’s Global CEO had recently expressed his doubts over the effectiveness of digital advertising. What constitute a ‘view’ in digital platform? 2 seconds? What about the actual viewing of the advertisements? Surely one would comprehend that a TV commercial that is not skippable has better chance of people viewing it versus skippable digital advertisements? A more robust analysis is needed to conclude this.

Back to the RM2 billion Adex. If TV operators are to expand back their pie from RM1 billion to RM2 billion, they have got to embrace digital technology. Media Prima introduced its own OTT (also the first OTT in Asean), tonton.com.my, in 2009 and since then, it has gone through the evolution of moving from a full AVOD, to a hybrid AVOD-SVOD, then to a full SVOD and now back to a full AVOD. It is as if we are looking at the diagram of the Aedes mosquito lifecycle at a Government Hospital’s lift where the Aedes mosquito transforms from an egg, to a larvae, a pupa, a mosquito and back to eggs. The point is, 'Change' is the only constant that is worth being embraced in this era of dynamic and demonic technological race. Media Prima TV has re-emerged in 2018 under its Democratising slogan where they had democratised digital (tonton), democratised content (partnership with You Tube), democratised advertisements (Jom Masuk TV advertisement package for Small and Medium Enterprises) and democratised shopping ('CJ Wow Shop'). By democratising their business, not only are they able to reconnect to the missing RM1 billion pie that has gone to the digital media, they can also tap into revenues from commerce transactions via TV platform.

Evolution is inevitable. We have got to change. Kodak failed to realise that their then 95% source of revenue, i.e. film, wasn’t going to be there forever. Despite being the inventor of digital camera, they lost their film revenues because competitors had embraced digital camera more effectively. Kodak is now under the American Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. Let us look at other examples. The largest transportation business in the World such as Uber and Grab, do not own any fleet of vehicles. The largest accommodation booking services in the World like Airbnb do not own a single property. Soon, in Malaysia, the largest TV station, TV3, need not even own a single transmission tower and equipment to continue transmitting its content. OTT like tonton.com.my has now started to discard their own technological platform and has instead, outsourced that function to You Tube and Daily Motion. This saves a lot of operational expenditure to the tune of USD10million to USD20 million per annum.

Again, back to the RM2 billion Adex. What used to be separated between TV Adex and Digital Adex have got to be merged again in both the content strategy as well as media management – at least to the extent of digital money that has gone to on-line video. Malaysia is in a unique position where such merger makes sense. The TV audience base and the on-line audience base have a symbiotic relationship. A research was done by the Media Prima TV Research team concurrent with the statistical survey done by Nielsen as well as statistics fro Google. By sampling drama titles such as Pujaan Hati Kanda, Leftenan Zana and many more in 2019, their observation revealed that there is a positive phenomenon where we can (although not yet conclusive) start shouting this statement: “Cord Cutters are Returning to TV and Cord Nevers are Embracing TV”. This claim is on the back of the behavioural change of the audience. Cord Cutters are Gen X and Y that grew up watching TV and Cord Nevers are the Millennials who had never seen a Cathode-ray Tube TV (the box TV in the 80’s) and they grew up watching content on tablets and computers.

The behavioural change was catalysed by the modern habit of binge watching. Our youth likes to binge watch. When they hear their friends, sisters, mothers or even grandmothers talk about some drama series that have casting team of actors and actresses of their same age, they are moved to watch the drama series on You Tube. This led to the continuous watching on on-line to catch up up to the latest episode that had been aired on TV. This normally happens at week 6 or 7 that means that the binge watching involves 6 to 7 episodes accumulating a total of 6 to 7 hours of eyeballs on the screen of the laptops or phones. This is not uncommon nowadays. Once they are on track (i.e. watched up to the latest episode), they will join their friends or families to watch comfortably on the sofa in front of the flat screen HD TV sets at home. The statistics showed that this surge in viewership on You Tube for these dramas translates to a surge in TV viewership as soon as the so called binge watch period ends. This is a good news to the TV operators.

Another example worth mentioning is, the long tail effect of content that has gone across multiple platforms. TV3’s Anugerah Juala Lagu ('AJL') has been around for 33 years. This Malaysian number 1 ranked music entertainment competition garners an average of 3.6 million viewers on TV with a cumulative unique viewers of 5 million. If repeated again on TV, it can garner another 1.6 million viewers. The same AJL can be sliced and diced into 15 to 20 shorter videos according to the songs that have been performed by both contestants as well as invited singers. These videos can then be put onto the on-line platform for subsequent viewing forever until such point when the TV operators decide to take them off. The result was quite a delightful surprise for the 32nd AJL in 2018 ('#AJL32'). All those #AJL32 videos on You Tube, Daily Motion as well as tonton.com.my had accumulated 26 million views in the space of 2 months subsequent to the live transmission on TV3. The sponsors, Samsung and Nivea, had not only benefitted from the huge viewership on TV, they had also benefited from the viewership on-line for an extended period of 2 months. Surely this is an efficient marketing budget well spent. With such benefit, TV stations can now pull back monies into their coffers.

What is the prospect of making money for the production houses in the country arising from the implementation of the DTTB? This question cannot be answered in a straight forward manner. There are many factors in play and miscalculating moves can cost money, big sums of money. The use of DTTB makes transmission more efficient by 7 to 10 times as compared to the analogue method. With such efficiency, there is no more scarcity of the radio wave spectrums for the Government to issue CASP licenses to FTA TV business owners. This results in the increase of FTA channels from 7 to 20 and possibly more. More channels coupled with the efficient transmission that covers 100% of the country (as opposed to 85% under analogue) provides wider viewer base. This enlarged footprint and service offerings create more demand for content and hence, provide more opportunities for production houses to get production jobs. Many production houses will jump to this opportunity and to no surprise, some even considered to obtain their own CASP license. As many would believe, competition creates better quality. True in this case.

Whilst we can plan for the macroeconomics of the industry to achieve positive intended good results such as better content and more opportunities to do business, profitable businesses; inefficiencies of the reality will always kick in. Expectations need to be adjusted. Efforts need to be focused. Pragmatism must be embraced. Most importantly, investments need to be carefully strategised. Earlier we touched on the matter of Adex. Adex is the source of money that will cascade down from the advertisers, to the TV stations and finally to the production houses. Without the advertising revenues, TV stations cannot commission the production houses to produce TV content. If the TV Adex is experiencing a slow growth, or more accurate, a decline (given the digital disruption), then there will be more slices of pie from the same or shrunk sized pie. Mathematically each TV station will get less revenue from the same pool. This means that the amount of money could potentially be the same but diluted across many players. As such, some TV stations may be forced to repeat content, do low production value content or even cut spending altogether.

This is why it is crucial that the TV industry is merged with the digital media industry. This will first combine the Adex for TV and digital. Then, advertising model needs to be accompanied by other revenue model such as partial SVOD or Transactional VOD ('TVOD'). Other interactivity is needed to make the experience more engaging with viewers and more angles to create business transactions. TV shopping for example has been in operation for some years now on both Astro and Media Prima TV. It was reported that TV shopping can garner revenues up to RM300 million a year a channel. At the rate it is growing, it can even reach the same level as TV Adex. In fact, the TV shopping habit has shown some contagious effect whereby the shopping has extended onto E-Commerce and Mobile Commerce ('ECMC') platforms for those TV shopping channels. In 2019, ECMC has been reported to have achieved 40% of overall revenues collected. Apart from TV shopping, there are many other interactivity that can give rise to economic transactions. Imagine how moneys can be made from video games that can be played on the DTTB? This would certainly pull TV into the same category as the rest of the digital media platforms.

The level of competition is just going to increase. Intense competition leads to the dilution of market share. Dilution of market share results in the rationalisation of pricing strategy downwards shrinking the magnitude of revenues even further. This vicious cycle needs to stop in order for the industry to prosper. Therefore, FTA TV operators must work together, collectively, to urge the Government to regulate Pay TV operators as well as OTT operators to ensure a level playing field between all players vis-à-vis advertising on content platforms. People who are paying monthly subscription fees to watch TV are expecting that they do not see advertisements like those appearing on a FTA channel. This expectation must be respected. On-line video platforms that are getting loads of revenue from advertising must be made responsible to pay income taxes as well as consumption taxes to the Malaysian Government and not hide behind some tax heaven incorporated companies on some island thousands of miles away.

If we are to take stock, what are the entities with strength that act as natural barriers to entry to new players in the market? The largest TV station is TV3 with the market share of 27% as of Quarter 1 of 2019 out of the total TV universe defined as aged 4 plus. That is almost one third of the viewers. All of the 4 Media Prima channels account for about 35%. All of the 180 plus channels under Astro have a combined market share of about 55%. TV1, TV2 and Al Hijrah accounts for the remaining 10%. So, for new stations that are coming on board, not only do they have to fight with the colossus TV3, they will have to fight with Astro’s 180 over channels. The fight is on both accounts, advertisement pricing as well as viewership for their respective content. Advertising rates are known to have been as expensive as RM21,000 per 30 second commercial during prime time (8pm to 11pm) and as cheap as RM100 to RM200 per 30 second commercial when heavy discounts are applied in the name of price war. Therefore, it is important for the Government to step in when there is a market failure whereby the industry is spiraling downwards rather than upwards. Excessive price cuts and discounting must be regulated to normalise the situation.

As aspired earlier, content quality is important. However, there is a risk of not achieving this if the money to production houses is not good. Rising costs result in quality being compromised if the overall production value stays stagnant. The lack of funds do have significant impact on the freedom of creativity. It (lack of funds) constraints the production propensity to evolve and as a result, stale content is produced again and again. The will to change is required. If not, the industry faces its worst enemy, that is, self-suicide. Like a cancerous limb that needs to be amputated, this problem needs to be tackled. Whilst waiting for the Government to come out with policies that are constructive to the economic well being of the TV industry players, the industry TV players themselves need to change from within. What can be done?

Firstly, TV industry players need to identify new sources of revenues. As discussed at length earlier, they must embrace technology not just because of customers’ sake, but also for the sake of revenue. Secondly, there needs to be a lean cost structure. Processes must be nimble and workforce must be without wastages. The last thing a business needs is having a fixed costs that are too huge to be recovered from any contribution margins of its portfolio of projects. In TV sense, what it means is that, advertising revenues less programme costs must be adequate to cover fixed costs as well as acceptable profit margin. If outsourcing functions are cheaper, then, difficult but honest decisions must be made to replace existing workforce with an outsourced partner. Other options would be automation and shared services. Thirdly, there needs to be a pragmatic approach in targeting the audience that matters as far as making money is concerned. Values in the eyes of the customers may not be the same as values in the eyes of the suppliers. TV channels cannot produce programmes that they like. They must produce programmes that the viewers want even if the TV stations disagree with it. The most that TV stations can indulge in their own taste is to give viewers what they don’t know they like (yet).

Digest Facts of the Malaysian Creative Industry

By Johan Ishak

www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

RESEARCH is an important element of any business. Research provides a clear vision of the industry that helps us strategise what we need to do now, or in the future, in response to, or in anticipation of, the current state of affairs, or some projected future possible scenario, for a given business venture, within the limitations of our scarce resources, regulatory landscape as well as technological disruptions. Notice how many commas are there in that sentence? This demonstrates how important research is as a component to the overall mechanism of a business venture. As how the Malays would put it, “Pergi merisik dulu sebelum melamar!” which means, “Recce first before proceeding”.

What sort of facts do we pursue to uncover from our research efforts? There are many aspects really. The professors in the universities have put it quite correctly when they preach about S.W.O.T Analysis, BCG Matrix, Maslow’s Hierarchy and 5 Forces Model. All these models are not merely academic. They are quite practical actually. We should research to find out what our strengths are, our inherent weaknesses, the opportunities in the market as well as emerging threats. We should know which products are with high growth requiring intense capital and which ones are already steadily generating cash with low capital requirements. We should know the needs of our audiences and what excites them. We should coordinate the relationships of the various inputs and outputs coming from or going to suppliers, customers, employees, regulators and competitors. These are all critical aspects. These are the bases of what governs our “gut feel” and not simply plugging ideas.

In the recent years we have seen so many industries meeting their death prematurely because they lack research that could have provided them with facts that are relevant for them to make critical business decisions. Kodak is a perfect example. Nobody could have imagined the death of the camera film industry in 2000, but yet, it eventually hit us when the digital camera spread across the world. In fact, Kodak was the inventor of the digital camera. They used Kodak to snap the first photograph of the planet Earth from the moon. Despite being the inventor of digital camera, they remained focused in their film business that had provided them 95% of their revenues. In the end, Kodak failed to realise consumers’ preference and their propensity to adapt new technologies. Kodak then had to file for bankruptcy.

Let us analyse a particular industry globally. Let us take filming as a start. The global box office for all films released in each country around the world reached USD36.4 billion in 2014, up 1% over 2013’s total. The growth was driven primarily by the Asia Pacific region (+12%). Chinese box office (USD4.8 billion) alone had increased by 34% in 2014, becoming the first international market to exceed USD4 billion in box office. Cinema screens increased by 6% worldwide in 2014 to over 142,000, due in large part to continued double digit growth in the Asia Pacific region (+15%). Over 90% of the world’s cinema screens are now digital. However, admissions, or tickets sold was at 1.27 billion with average tickets sold per person per screen of 3.7 which meant, a decline of 6% from 2013. This was compensated by increase in the average cinema ticket price by 4 cents that is less than the rate of inflation in the Asian economy. What does this suggest from the pure Demand and Supply explanation? Are we experiencing a glut?

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook research paper suggests that new multiplexes are driving admissions particularly in China. In China, it is expected that there will be 60,000 screens by 2020,more than 6 times the 2012 total, which will then drive box office spending in China by more than 20% compounded annually from2012 to 2020. Global box office spending is projected to grow at a 6.3% compound annual rate, while home video will be relatively flat, averaging only 0.5% growth compounded annually. Overall spending on film entertainment will rise at a 3.1% compound annual rate to USD100 billion by 2020 from USD85 billion in 2012.

In the past years, prior to the excellent performances of titles such as Polis Evo (1 and 2), The Journey, Khurafat, Munafik (1 and 2), Paskal and the Hantu Kak Limah series (together referred to as the “Malaysian Box Office Game Changer”), the Malaysian film industry did see an increase in cinema admissions from 50 million to 70 million garnering an increased gross collection from RM500 million to RM700 million per annum. This is on the back of the increase in cinemas from 100 to 140 giving an increase in screens from 600 to 800. The numbers of seats had also increase from 100,000 to 150,000. When analysed from local content supply perspective, the number of local films had increased from 50 titles a year to 80 titles a year with an increased average production cost from RM70 million per year to RM100 million per year.

Despite the increase in the number of titles, the number of admission for local films had decreased from 13 million to 6 million per annum resulting in the reduction in gross takings from RM120 million to RM70 million. This means the overall increase in admissions and collections were due to foreign titles such as those from Hollywood. The local film industry essentially consists of the Malay film industry that produces largely for the local Malay market. In recent years, however, a more Malaysian outlook has evolved with the emergence of a group of independent film makers whose low-budget productions are targeted at a wider international audience. Hence, the production of local movies has doubled whilst a noticeable decline in the average production costs by about 5.5% from RM1.3 million to RM1.2 million.

Local films face stiff competition from imported films. Hollywood films continues to dominate the local cinema industry holding a market share of over 66% every year. Tamil and Chinese movies also saw some growth during this period. In 2014, a basic survey was done on the profile of Hollywood movies. The top five grossing films in 2014 was used as a test case, namely, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Solider, The Lego Movie, Transformers: Age of Extinction and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. The first 4 movies attracted majority male audiences. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 showed the strongest female attendance of the top 5 films, with 57% of box office revenue coming from women. Transformers Age of Extinction drew the most ethnically diverse audience: 38% are Caucasian; 22% are African-American; 26% are Hispanic; and 14% are Asian and other ethnicity. Similar studies should be done in Malaysia in order to gauge the market’s taste.

The local film industry also faces competition from the advent of home videos and Video onDemand (VOD) on the internet or illegal pirated android boxes. In addition, as mentioned earlier, box office collection from local movies had declined despite the gradual increase in the number of local Malay films produced and released in the market. Of course these were all before the so called “Malaysian Box Office Game Changer”. Our hope is that more of these “Malaysian Box Office Game Changer” titles can and will be produced in the future shifting the viewers’ attention from Hollywood to Malaysian titles.

In one of Malaysia’s growth regions, Iskandar Malaysia in Johor (adjacent to Singapore), Khazanah Nasional Berhad (the Government of Malaysia's strategic investment fund) and Pinewood Shepperton PLC have opened a USD120 million studio complex boosting its regional status as an international film production hub. The creative sector surrounding Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios is expected to lead to spin-off investments of USD323 million and create 8,000 jobs over the years to come, as well as boost the local film entertainment market. Has this effort bear any fruits yet? So far, other than the famous Marco Polo television series, we have not yet heard any further success stories. Presumably such investment will require other incentives to help boost its usefulness. Amongst others is the Film in Malaysia Incentive (‘FIMI’) by Film Nasional (‘FINAS’). If FIMI is not enhanced to attract both local and foreign producers to use Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios, then we may be facing another white elephant potential. The Malaysian Government must, without delay, create proper mandate and affirmative actions for the industry to kick start its engine vis-a-vis huge investments that have been made in the past.

To be fair, the Malaysian Government, via its Ministry of Communication and Multimedia, has developed many incentives for content development specifically for film, television and other projects. It is anticipated that these incentives will encourage production activities and increase local skill sets to match those of international standards throughout the creative content industry. FIMI is expected to give up to 30% cash rebate on all Qualifying Malaysian Production Expenditure (‘QMPE’) incurred by both local and foreign producers. The scheme kicked off on 1 February 2013 and includes both production and post-production activities. It is good that Malaysia has started this, but like any efforts, the output needs to be measured against the input and a conclusion derived on its effectiveness and efficiency, particularly when it uses the tax payers’ money.

Let us look at the global home video trend. According to a research done by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Wilkofsky Gruen Associates, in 2007, physical home video (i.e. VHS or DVD) used to garner USD50 billion revenues as opposed to less than a billion USD for digital home video. Now, with the growing demand for on-line streaming services, the position has switched. Digital home video platforms are garnering billions of revenues now with the physical method plunging 6 feet under with a tombstone on it. Obsolescence is the new disease now. Along with most of the rest of the region, the Malaysian home video market has seen a decline too.

With piracy as a concern for the region, much content makes its way onto the internet less than 24 hours after release. Thus, piracy remains one of videos biggest competitors, albeit its illegitimacy. Retail piracy in kiosks and malls, including pirated movies claiming to be in Blu-ray format, has notably cut into potential home video revenues. In fact, Blu-ray format has probably been sent 6 feet under as well. A team of Intellectual Property officers from Media Prima Berhad recently took a proactive (or rather reactive) action in pulling down hundreds of pirated on-line sites with the help of the Malaysian Ministry of Communication and Multimedia as well as the Malaysian Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumerism. The sites that were pulled down are believed to have garnered up to 40 million to 60 million on-line views per month. This is a huge number equivalent to 50% of the views reached by the number 1 YouTube account in Malaysia, i.e. TV3Malaysia.

Let us move on to television (‘TV’) now since the physical home video method has now reside in the graveyard. There are currently 8 national, Free-to-Air (‘FTA’) terrestrial TV channels in Malaysia and two national pay subscription TV services. In addition, a 24-hour TV was introduced in Malaysia in 1989 (‘TV1’). Currently, analogue is the most widespread TV delivery standard in Malaysia. Analogue terrestrial transmissions have been scheduled to be switched off in phases as part of a digital switchover, expected to be completed in quarter 3 or 4 of 2019. The frequency of these digital switchovers has mostly been delayed to avoid signal jamming with TV stations in Thailand as well as Indonesia. In any case, we will not go too detail into the digital TV platform now as that will require a fresh train of thoughts. Let us concentrate on the traditional TV first.

With reference to Oxford Economics, it is estimated that the TV industry directly contributes an estimated RM1.64 billion to the Malaysian economy in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013. In the process, they directly supported approximately 4,548 jobs. Moreover, TV programming and broadcasting consist of 55% of the total film and TV industry. Today in 2019, huge portion of that RM1.64 billion, to be exact 50%, has migrated to Facebook and Google. I repeat, gone to the giants, Facebook and Google. The 2020 digital revenue forecast is expected to be flat but Facebook and Google are expected to record positive growth. With that much revenue lost (migrated from FTA TV), one might wonder how much longer can the 4,548 jobs be sustained. As it is, a few broadcasters have already embarked on efforts to right size their human resources structure by the hundreds of headcount.

The export market of film and TV exports is minor at present. Data from MSC Malaysia (Malaysia’s national ICT initiative) indicated that the creative multimedia industry as a whole (i.e. including animation, film, TV and video effects, as well as games, mobile and new media) accounted for only RM490 million in exports in the year 2012. The value of exports accounted for by film and TV would therefore be expected to be a sub-set of this figure. Exports from Malaysia typically find their way to Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia, although the Philippines, South Korea and South Africa broadcasters have also been recipients of Malaysian film and TV products.

Media Prima Berhad is the dominant FTA broadcaster, operating channels TV3, ntv7, 8TV and TV9. Its channels account for 38% of the TV viewing in Malaysia. The advertising market used to be resilient with Advertisement Expenditure (ADEX) growth of 1.5 times the GDP growth and up to 54% of the overall advertisement revenues goes to TV. Today, that connection has been broken. Not only 50% of the TV revenues have gone to digital platforms, the correlation to GDP growth is haywired. The economy can move in whatever direction but the TV industry continues to face digital disruptions. The holy multiplier of 1.5 times of GDP has disappeared. Media Prima Berhad has seen a gradual decline in its audience share over the past 2 decades as satellite Pay-TV services increase their bouquet of channels. It is a dilution game. A very damaging game to the industry as it offers downward spiralling of economic values. Facebook and Google’s entrance into the market further compounds the effect to the extent even Astro is seeing dents in its revenue.

FTA public broadcaster, RTM, is leading the transition from analogue transmission to digital terrestrial TV (‘DTT’) transmission. RTM conducted a “DVB - T2” trial transmission and started DTT services in early 2013. With such tests, the Government has finally announced that the Analogue Switch-Off (“ASO’) is set for quarter 3 or 4 in 2019. The platform began offering 15 channels from 2013, many of which airs High Definition (‘HD’) programming. It was deliberated that the local RTM channels should have the name RTM and the state name, for example “RTM Penang” in Penang. Each channel per state was to have its own schedule and broadcasting hours, and some channels relay programming from the national RTM1 and RTM2 (usually news programmes and Government programmes). Today, that has not yet happened. In the future, when the DTT platform has been fully implemented, we might see such variety in content offerings.

A Pay-TV satellite service provider, Astro, launched a free satellite TV service, NJOI, in February 2012. The service currently provides 18 TV channels and 19 radio stations, that include RTM's TV1 and TV2, TV3, TV9. ntv7, 8TV, TVi, CCTV-4, Bernama TV, Astro Prima, Astro Oasis, Astro Awani, Astro AEC, Astro Xiao Tai Yang, JiaYu, Astro Vaanavil, MakkalTV and all AMP Radio channels including hitz.fm, ERA and MY FM. An existing Astro customer can receive this service through a separate account. The set-up consists of a set-top box, out-door unit (‘ODU’) satellite dish, smartcard and a remote control unit, all available at RM288. As NJOI gains its market acceptance, the Pay-TV subscribers have been gradually migrating to it with the view of enjoying free of charge TV content like that of FTA. This means Astro is metamorphosising its Pay-TV business (or parts of it) to a FTA Satellite TV.

Astro dominates Malaysia’s Pay-TVmarket via Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform. Its more than 5 million subscribers represent almost the entire local Pay-TV sector. However, as mentioned earlier, many have reverted to Astro’s free platform, NJOI. To date, it is believed that many of that 5 million subscribers have unsubscribed their Pay-TV account. Opportunities for rival Pay-TV companies are limited because Astro controls most of the popular content. It used to hold exclusive rights from the Malaysian Government to offer satellite TV broadcasting services in the country up until 2017. Although that exclusivity is no longer enforced, the barrier to entry (for competitors of Pay-TV) is still virtually in existence given their significant first mover advantage that was untouched for 2 decades or so.

Astro is more likely to show independent TV programmes and independent feature films given its less reliance on advertising revenue. TV3 and RTM is less likely to show such niche programmes as its advertisement revenue reliance model would mean that they prefer mass market content. While many of the networks do have in-house production arms, they still receive a notable amount of content from outside partners. In-house production typically produces non-drama and non-movie programming. For example, many channels will create their own reality shows along with licensing finished products (e.g. Idol, X-Factor, Project Runway, etc.) from foreign countries particularly Hollywood.

Malaysia’s primary language is Bahasa Malaysia with English Language as its secondary language. The country also features the second largest Chinese population after the mainland itself. Therefore, the country features many Chinese FTA channels as well as Pay-TV Chinese channels. The content on these channels typically does not come from Chinese companies only but also features programming from local Malaysia companies. Most of the product is sub-titled, though many in Malaysia are literate in both Mandarin and Cantonese.

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is the most likely challenger to Astro. Telekom Malaysia has conducted lengthy IPTV trials and launched its HyppTV service commercially in March 2010. It has since been rebranded into UnifiTV. There are several other IPTV platforms that aim at more niche markets such as the country’s Indian or Chinese populations but many did not survive. In Malaysia, the adoption of IPTV, mobile TV and Video on Demand (VOD) has been slow in the beginning. The first Over-the-Top (‘OTT’) or on-line video streaming to start its operation in Malaysia in 2009 was tonton.com.my ('Tonton'). Tonton operated on 2 levels, first being the simulcast of FTA TV live on-line and, second, VOD menu of a library of content.

It took quite a while for the other players to enter the market. It only started to show any growth over the past few years when Iflix and Netflix started their operations in Malaysia in 2016. Now we have VIU and Dim Sum joining the bandwagon. Whilst OTT services grew in the recent years, continued growth is expected in digital delivery through IPTV and Pay-TV operators such as Unifi TV and Astro. Astro had also launched its Astro First and Astro Best services that offer Hollywood and Asian movies as early as three months post any theatrical release and in HD where available. Titles are available for RM10 (USD2.50) each and are made available for 48 hours from the purchase point. Astro continues to work with international studios like The Walt Disney Company, Lionsgate, Sundance Channel, Animax, Fortune Star, CJ Media and Unitel Classica.

Astro has lower risks associated with the economic conditions (or at least less risky than FTA TV). The risk of impaired revenue earning capacity is somewhat mitigated as revenue from Pay-TV is predominant derived from subscription charges rather than from advertising money. Pay-TV and Government backed FTA TV would still have strong appetite to purchase content especially from overseas since these channels do not depend heavily on advertising revenue. Hence, RTM and Astro would still continue to purchase latest films despite any contractionary advertising industry during an economic crisis.

Let us move on to theatres rather quickly. Istana Budaya was built in 1995 with a cost of RM210 million on a 5.44 hectare land giving a built up floor area of 21,000 square metres. It is the first theatre in Asia that has sophisticated stage mechanism for theatre performance. Istana Budaya charges approximately RM15,000 per day. It attracts on average 150,000 attendees a year who buys tickets from an average of 25 local shows and 5 international shows a year garnering RM10 million revenue a year. This sub-industry provides jobs to a dozen of companies that employs about 100 to 200 workers per show at an average salary of RM5,000 to RM10,000. For a year, Istana Budaya alone can provide jobs on project basis to more than 4,000 people in total. Production costs for a show will depend on the creative treatment and can range from as cheap as RM500,000 to RM1 million inclusive of advertising and promotion budget of about RM200,000 for each show.

Creative content production companies should, therefore, consider theatre as a potential revenue stream. When an Intellectual Property (‘IP’) is created successfully, it should be pivoted from TV, to cinemas and finally the theatres. A good example would be Puteri Gunung Ledang where its success in the filming scene had led to multiple rounds of musical theatre productions at Istana Budaya.

One other fact that is quite delightful to the celebrities vis-a-vis their appearance on the screen would be the source of income from their involvement in advertising. This is a good opportunity not to be ignored. Some good examples are: Nora Danish (UniQlo, Mamee), Shaheizy Sam (Digi, Nescafe, Petronas, WeChat), Farid Kamil (Cleanpro, Cadbury, Downy), Mira Filzah (100 Plus), Nabilah Razalli (Samsung) and many more. Creative production houses should also diversify their roles to include talent management. After all, we do live in an era of 360 degrees diversification. If we do not arrest opportunities, then that ignorance will be the very reason for our demise as a creative production house. How would you make yourself aware of the opportunities to capitalise? Well, go back to the first word in the first paragraph of this article. I rest my case.

The Speech by the Chairman of myFreeview at the Digital TV Media Briefing Organised by MCMC on 24 May 2019

By Johan Ishak
www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com

BROADCASTING in Malaysia has gone through a significant progression since it was first introduced way back in 1963. We started off watching movies and television (TV) programmes in black and white. Then there was the full colour transmission that was officially inaugurated in 1982. Since then the broadcasting industry, that was in analogue broadcast system, progressed in tandem with technological advancements. We have all grown up in the analogue broadcast era.

Our broadcasting system will soon experience a transition from analogue to digital broadcast system. This is a global progression in the broadcasting industry which began in 2006. The Government is currently working towards the progression to digital broadcast, that will be fully embraced by October this year (2019). In fact, today, the transmission of digital terrestrial radio wave is already completed at 100% coverage of the nation. This is of course from the hard work of the infrastructure owner, MYTV Broadcasting (MYTV). Under the analogue transmission, we are only able to reach 85% to 90% coverage.

To ensure that all Malaysians are able to experience the digital broadcast system when the analogue switch off happens, myFreeview was introduced. It is a brand name for Malaysia’s free Digital TV (DTV) Broadcasting services, i.e. Digital Terrestrial TV Broadcasting (DTTB). myFreeview is an alliance of Free-to-Air (FTA) TV broadcasters in Malaysia. It represents existing FTA TV operators such as Media Prima TV Networks (TV3, ntv7, 8TV and TV9); Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM); TV Al-Hijrah and Bernama News Channel. We also have new FTA TV operators, that consists of more than thirteen (13) Content Application Service Provider (CASP) license holders.

myFreeview is aimed at jointly promoting the FTA TV channels through a single or unified brand, i.e. myFreeview, over the DTV platform that is being operated by MYTV. It will also work closely with Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to execute the education and awareness campaign on-air, on-ground, on-line and on social media. At this juncture, myFreeview would like to thank MCMC for the continuous and valuable support. In implementing the roll out of DTV, myFreeview will also constantly discuss common areas of concerns and challenges that all of its members are facing and hence, present suggestions and recommendations to regulators and stakeholders for the betterment of the FTA TV industry.

Now that you know who is myFreeview and its objective let us talk about its benefits. With myFreeview, viewers can watch their favourite channels in high quality and clear image, enjoy high quality sound, have various subtitles and gain access to Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) that provides programme details and synopsis. They can also watch content in High Definition (HD). With digital transmission, viewers can rest assured that they will not face any disruption in transmission due to bad weather conditions. Furthermore, myFreeview services will be offered without any monthly subscription charges.

With internet connection, viewers can watch more of their favorite content by pressing the Red Button on their remote controls. In our case, viewers can access online streaming channels such as tonton.com.my content on demand by pressing the red button. In addition, such internet capabilities, if connected via internet line or Wifi, can give users the access to various online content including video games and e-commerce. Under the current analogue transmission, not only we are missing such services, there is also limitations in offering more FTA TV channels due to the transmission spectrum congestion.

How do you get access to myFreeview channels? Basically there are two ways to do so – i.e. DTTB approved Set Top Box or via integrated Digital TV (iDTV or Smart TV) sets that are already with DTV tuner built-in. Consumers only need to purchase a decoder (Set Top Box) to enable their current analogue TV sets to receive the DTV channels, or, purchase an iDTV with a built-in decoder. They only have to plug in a Ultra High Frequency (UHF) antenna to receive DTV services. Most new flat screen Smart TV sets in the market have DTV decoders built-in today. Those who are buying DTV enabled equipment such as Set Top Boxes or iDTV sets should look out for the SIRIM certified DTTB logo. This is to ensure that they are getting the right Set Top Box or iDTV set that would give them access to myFreeview channels. We understand that to date there are twelve iDTV brands that are already SIRIM certified such as Samsung, Panasonic and Sony, to name a few.

To date, myFreeview has compelling content in the form of 15 television channels and six radio channels. We expect to add four more channels very soon. Four broadcasters have come on board, namely, RTM, Media Prima TV Networks, Al-Hijrah Media Corporation and Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama). As for Radio, we have RTM Radio stations across the nation that are now on this DTV platform. Currently, myFreeview is being led by Media Prima TV Networks' Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Johan Ishak, being the Chairman of myFreeview. We also have Cik Adiwati Zainuddin, the CEO of Borneo TV, as myFreeview's Deputy Chairperson.

As we get ready to migrate to digital broadcast system, we intend to offer more FTA DTV channels with quality content, that are appealing to our viewers. We also want to ensure that our viewers will be able to enjoy high quality viewing with crisp and clearer image quality and vibrant colors coupled with better quality audio with multi-channel and surround sound capabilities. In the future, we, myFreeview, hope to roll-out more channels with fresh content, interactive TV services including home shopping, sports, entertainment, video game, video on demand, and customised services as well as mobile and TV shopping. With more choices and better quality content without subscription, we believe that terrestrial TV will get a new lease of life, hence bringing back the glory days where TV is the central entertainment and communal device in the family unit. In an effort to ensure that Malaysians from all walk of life enjoy FTA TV and kept informed at all times, we will focus on offering free TV services, i.e. migrating our existing analogue TV channels on DTV platform. Currently, we have no plans to include Pay-TV channels on myFreeview. We may revisit the idea in future.

As we get closer towards the Analogue Switch Off (ASO), we want to attract viewers to myFreeview. We believe we are able to do so by offering free, new and latest content that is appealing and interesting for viewers of all ages. By offering myFreeview services free without monthly subscription charges, it will definitely be well received. We understand that there are some questions with regards to the difference between myFreeview and ASTRO. First and foremost, myFreeview is a brand that comprise of FTA TV channels that are subscription free and derives its income from advertising, while ASTRO is a pay TV that is subscription-based. In terms of transmission, ASTRO uses satellite while with myFreeview, the content is broadcasted to TV via transmitters in a digital format. This also enables mobile receivers (in-car and hand-held) to be used unlike ASTRO that requires fixed and non-mobile reception. Hence, we do not see ASTRO as a competitor. We believe that myFreeview will be very much accepted as it is subscription free and has lots to offer with the digital experience. As for the difference with ASTRO NJOI, myFreeview channel is broadcasted over DTTB platform, that is not affected by rain, while NJOI operates over ASTRO satellite platform that may be interrupted by weather conditions.

There will be areas, that will not be able to receive the DTV signals due to blockages and its location beyond the transmitter coverage areas. These areas will be serviced using satellite Direct-To-Home (DTH). To ensure that no one is left behind in this migration, my advice to the Rakyat (public) is to get the decoders and install it. Don’t wait until the ASO. They can purchase the DTTB decoders from electronic retailers and partners such as Pensonic and Seng Heng. Once the analogue transmission is switched off and viewers who have not purchased their decoders, they will not be able to watch their favourite programmes on the FTA channels. Decoders or Set Top Boxes mean the same as the term is used by the industry interchangeably. For the 2 million households that have received the decoders under the Bantuan Sara Hidup Rakyat (BSHR), please install them. It is time to experience DTV! For those who are not within the BSHR eligibility, please buy your DTTB Set Top Boxes that are only priced at RM187 and of course, you will need to incur some installation costs as well as the antenna cost if you do not have one already. Alternatively, it is better to get a new Smart TV or iDTV with DTTB capabilities.

There is a growing concern about the ability for the CASP license holders to make money. Basically, the revenue model for the channels under CASP is an Advertisement Revenue model (Adex). Adex is predominantly driven by viewership numbers. Viewership numbers are reported by third party independent TV viewership measurement consultant that broadcasters have to subscribe to. Currently, Nielsen is providing that measurement services. It is with pleasure that some good news have been reported by Nielsen as far as TV viewership is concerned. In the past year or so, we have seen a tremendous increase in FTA TV viewership. Media Prima TV Networks, for example, saw its TV3 achieving 28% audience share in 2019 as opposed to 21% in 2018.

Such good achievement is on the back of strong performances by TV programmes such as Buletin Utama that saw almost 100% increase from 1.5 million views to 3.0 million views per episode. Good Malay drama titles like Leftenan Zan reached an average viewers of 4 million during its last few episodes. This is a good indicator of people wanting to watch TV again. We have seen statistics that show Cord Nevers (Millennials who did not grow up watching TV) and Cord Cutters (Gen X who had earlier abandoned TV viewing) returning to FTA TV viewing habit. This is certainly a good sign, but, broadcasters must strive to give quality content that meets audiences' expectations. This is so because TV broadcasting should also benchmark the quality of its content to that offered by other platforms such as Pay-TV, on-line streaming services (Also known as Over-the-Top (OTT)) and the internet in general (e.g. YouTube and numerous other on-line video players).

Another important aspect of this industry that has not been mentioned yet is piracy. myFreeview and Communication and Multimedia Content Forum (CMCF) are working closely with the authorities such as MCMC and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumerism (KPDNHEP) to battle piracy on many levels be it hardwares or content infringement. The Government agencies mentioned have eliminated many unnecessary procedures to ensure that they can react faster and even proactively address piracy. We urge everyone from viewers to content providers to help join us fight piracy. The impact of piracy to the economic well being of the industry is huge. Recently, many pirate sites were closed down in a space of one month and we discovered that that alone had 40 million views. Such number is indeed worrying. We need to fight this. Or else, it will become a cancer to our Broadcasting Industry, Content Industry as well as the Digital Industry making it impossible to grow economically.

Essentially, In a nut shell, the salient points to take away are: (a) DTV is ready at 100% transmission coverage by MyTV across the nation; (b) Do not wait until ASO in October 2019, but, instead, get your Set Top Boxes or iDTV now if you are not one of the 2 million BSHR Set Top Boxes recipients, and do not forget to also install UHF antennas; (c) Enjoy the variety of content that myFreeview channels will be offering free of charge (d) The existing CASP license holders should expedite the commencement of their channels on myFreeview; (e) We welcome more content owners to apply for CASP license and procure channels on myFreeview for better and variety offerings to the viewers as well as the chance to make money; and finally (f) Say no to piracy whether in the form of hardware (i.e. illegal android boxes) or content infringement activities on various platforms like Facebook, YouTube, web sites or even illegal Set Top Boxes. On that note, please embrace DTV and should you need further information, read more about this on the web site myfreeview.tv