TV3

TV3
TV3 logo
Launched	1 June 1984
Owned by	Media Prima Berhad
Picture format	PAL (576i)
Audience share	48.5% (6 January 2008, Bernama)
Slogan	Rangkaian Sukaramai (Everyone's favourite network) (1985-1993) First in News, Best in Entertainment (Berita Terkini Hiburan Sensasi) (1993-2002) Duniamu (Your World) (2002-2004) Pilihan Hatiku (My Heart's Choice) (2006-2007) TV3 Disisimu (TV3 Is At Your Side) (2007-2008) Inspirasi Hidupku (My Life's Inspiration) (2008-)
Country	Malaysia
Broadcast area	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Headquarters	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Sister channel(s)	ntv7 8TV TV9
Website	www.tv3.com.my
Availability
Terrestrial
Analogue	Normally tuned to 3 on VHF and UHF, VHF Channel 12, UHF Channel 29
Digital	DMB-T, Band L (Damansara/Kuala Lumpur metro area only)
Satellite
Astro	Channel 103

Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad (STMB) or TV3 was incorporated in 1983 as Malaysia’s first commercial television station. It is part of Media Prima group of companies.

History

Also called 'TV Tiga' (its name in Malay), it began broadcasting in the Klang Valley, (the area surrounding Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia) on 1 June 1984.

In July 1984, TV3 became the first commercial channel in collaboration with RTM bringing Malaysians the live coverage of the Los Angeles Olympics.

In late 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.

In December 1987, stereo transmissions began in the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was the first channel in Malaysia to adopt stereo broadcasting. ^[1] 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.

On 25 April 1988, TV3 was listed on the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

TV3 also introduced 24-hour broadcasting in 31 August 1997. However, due to the then-recent Asian financial crisis, 24-hour broadcasting was removed in December 1998 until for a short time from 2004 to 2009.

In January 2001, TV3 was the first channel in Malaysia to broadcast a 3D-movie. The movie, Jaws 3-D, required the viewers to have a pair of anaglyph glasses that can either be bought from certain stores partnered with TV3 for the event or attained from elsewhere (i.e. a 3D comic book the viewer already has).

Features

Ever since its launch, TV3 has been the leading television station in Malaysia and has twice reached 51% of audience share (12 January - 18, 2003 and 29 June - 5 July 2003), 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 daily the New Straits Times and Malay daily Berita Harian form the largest media group in Malaysia, collectively known as Media Prima. 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.^{[citation needed]}. 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 RTM's DVB and DMB signals which are available throughout the Klang Valley.

TV3 is also available over Astro on Channel 103.

Programmes

Dramas are in blue; variety programmes are in brown; movies and/or specials are in black; reality shows are in orange; serial soap dramas are in violet; comedies are in lime; magazine and investigative programmes are in yellow.

TV3's Primetime programmes as of October 2009.

Criticism and Controversy

TV3 has bring some controversies to Malaysian entertainment, especially with the excessive advertisement space which lead to the anger of the audience.^{[citation needed]}

In Singapore, the channel ran into controversy because it broadcast programmes in Cantonese. The Singapore government has a policy to promote Mandarin 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 is available on StarHub, one of Singapore's cable TV operator.

In February 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 TV show called Teleskop in the mid 1990s.

Trivia

• TV3 was awarded the 2007 Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award for Responsible Entrepreneurship organized by Enterprise Asia for its significant contribution towards corporate social responsibility.

• In late 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

References

1. ^ TV3's History TV3's website archived by Internet Archive. Accessed November 29, 2009.

External links

• Official Site
• Malaysian TV Listing Blog

v • d • e Chinese language television in Southeast Asia The following channels offer at least some programming in Chinese  Indonesia Metro TV · Da Ai TV Indonesia  Malaysia Free-to-air (All national) TV2 · TV3 · ntv7 · 8TV Subscription television Astro AEC · Hua Hee Dai · Shuang Xing · Wah Lai Toi · Xiao Tai Yang · Astro On Demand · Jia Yu Channel  Singapore Channel 8 · Channel U · TVMobile