The Malaysian Government Wants To Give You Free Money And A Free Digital TV Decoder

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced on Wednesday that 4.2 million BR1M households all over Malaysia will receive a free MYTV decoder, as reported by The Star.

The decision to give out the decoders is reportedly in line with the government’s vision of moving towards digital broadcasting by June 2018.

According to the report, qualified households will receive their decoders in stages and it is expected to be fully distributed by 2018.

The decoder enables viewers to enjoy myFreeview, a broadcast service offering free-to-air channels in digital quality. Viewers will need to set up the service by connecting their TVs to the MYTV decoder and an ultra-high frequency (UHF) antenna.

myFreeview has reportedly achieved 87% coverage nationwide so far and will reach 98% by the end of this year.

So, what are the channels that you will be getting?

Malaysians will enjoy nine TV stations –TV1, TV2, TVi, TV AlHijrah, TV3, NTV7, 8TV and Bernama News Channel and four RTM radio stations – Nasional FM, Traxx FM, Minnal FM, and Ai FM.

According to Najib, more content will be added to the service in the future, namely interactive online shopping and mobile TV.

Interested in the MYTV but you’re not a BR1M recipient? Don’t worry, the government has made the decoder available for retail sale with the price tag of RM199. Sale of the decoders will be announced soon.