TV3 (Malaysian TV network)

TV3

Country	Malaysia
Network	New Straits Times Press
Headquarters	Sri Pentas, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Ownership
Owner	Media Prima Berhad

Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad (STMB) or TV3 is a Malaysian private television station owned and operated by the Media Prima Berhad group of companies in Malaysia. It began began broadcasting on 1 June 1984 as Malaysia’s first commercial television station. It is now broadcasting 24-hours a day, 7 days a week since 1 January 2010. Its television broadcasting stations and corporate headquarters centres are at Sri Pentas, Persiaran Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya.

History

TV3 officially began broadcasting on 1 June 1984 at 18:00 local time, launched by then Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad and broadcasts from Kuala Lumpur. This broadcast area was only limited to Klang Valley area during its early years.

On 28 July 1987, TV3 became the first commercial channel in collaboration with RTM bringing Malaysians the live coverage of the Jakarta Southeast Asian Games. The same thing was also done in 1997 (failed, now RTM TV1) and 2011 (passed, all matches now RTM TV1).

On 28 July 1984, TV3 became the first commercial channel in collaboration with RTM bringing Malaysians the live coverage of the Los Angeles Olympics. The same thing was also done in 1988 and 1992.

On 1 January 1985, TV3 launched its first teletext service known as Beriteks. In 1996 the service's name was changed to Infonet. It was shut down on 1 January 2008.

On 1 January 1987, TV3 television audio stereo transmissions began in the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was the first channel in Malaysia to adopt stereo broadcasting. It transmits using the Zweikanalton stereo transmission system over TV3's UHF broadcast in the Klang Valley. Later in the 1990s, the stereo transmission was introduced into their VHF broadcast. TV3 was also experimenting with bilingual transmission over Zweikanalton for a short period of time in the 1990s.

It had adopting 24-hour for many times, first at 1990's, later mid 2000's at Thursday to Sunday and 24-hours in sometime at 2006-2007, before TV3 swap its broadcasts at normally 05.00-01.30 at mid 2008 until 31 December 2009, and finally adopting 24-hour broadcasting after 1 January 2010.

Features

Ever since its launch, TV3 has been the leading television station in Malaysia and has twice reached 51% of audience share, the highest audience share ever achieved by a Malaysian television station. In terms of advertising revenue, the company retains its leadership position and continues to produce strong revenue growth from advertisements. TV3 continues to upgrade its equipment for production and transmission, and its employees receive continuous exposure and training in television production. This has enabled TV3 to remain as the premier private commercial broadcaster.

TV3, together with 8TV and local English language daily the New Straits Times and Malay language daily Berita Harian form the largest media group in Malaysia collectively known as Media Prima Berhad. It is currently headed by Ahmad Izham Omar.

With Malaysia on the track to economic recovery, there has been a correspondingly steady demand for local programmes, whether it be news, current affairs, magazines, talk shows, sports, documentaries, dramas or films. With a strong base of television producers have revolutionized local content production to admiral levels in the broadcast industry. The station has been a trendsetter by producing quality local production and has caught the attention and loyalty of Malaysians. Believing in the precept that local content is the way to go, TV3 continues to invest in people and equipment to produce quality local content. However, the station also broadcast a balance of quality foreign content movies, dramas, situation comedy, documentaries and sports. The station has a strong market position and reinforces its brand awareness amongst its viewers through various on air and ground events.

TV3 currently broadcasts under UHF (Ultra High) Frequency, although it is also available in the Klang Valley under VHF (Very High) Frequency band III Channel 12 (TV3 initially started transmission in the Klang Valley on VHF Band III Channel 12). In the Klang Valley, the UHF channel is 29. It is widely seen as favouring the government and not giving enough coverage for the opposition. TV3 is also currently testing digital broadcasting, using the Chinese DMB-T/H system. The coverage is limited to Kuala Lumpur City area only, as opposed to both Radio Televisyen Malaysia's DVB and DMB signals which are available throughout the Klang Valley.

TV3 is also available over Astro on Channel 103.

Criticism and controversy

TV3 has brought some controversies to the Malaysian entertainment sphere, especially with the excessive advertisement space which lead to the anger of the audience.

In Singapore, the channel ran into controversy because it broadcast programmes in Cantonese. The Singapore government has a policy to promote Mandarin Chinese in favour of other Chinese language dialects in broadcast media and has prevented local newspapers and magazines from carrying listings for the channel, even though these were available for the other Malaysian channels. TV3 was available on StarHub TV Singapore's only cable TV operator, until it was removed in 1 January 2002.

On 1 January 2007 a reality television programme which broadcasted on TV3 called Sensasi was banned. This was because, one of the judges on this show touched on sensitive issues relating to Islam. The judge's comment made a huge controversy. All live and recorded telecast of this show were also banned from viewing. This also occurred on another reality television show called Teleskop on 1 January 1994.

Trivia

• TV3 was awarded the 1 January 2008 Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award for Responsible Entrepreneurship organized by Enterprise Asia for its significant contribution towards corporate social responsibility.

• On 1 January 2008, TV3 began testing digital transmission. However they chose a different system, DMB-T/H, instead of the DVB-T system RTM uses. As such, viewers already owning a DVB-T receiver cannot pick up TV3's digital signal. The government has since moved to support both systems. However, DMB-T receivers remain scarce in Malaysia.

See also

• List of Malaysian television stations
• TV9
• 8TV
• ntv7
• Media Prima Berhad
• New Straits Times
• Berita Harian

External links

• Official Site
• Malaysian TV Listing Blog Full List visit to watch
• Malaysian TV Listing Blog