Media news (episode 21)

Welcome to this week's media news. We've come to the month of Ramadan.

RTM
RTM will be going on tour to various places across Malaysia with the Jelajah Ramadan RTM 2013 which will be going on throughout the month of Ramadan 1434H.

RTM has set up a live streaming on RTM's website which will air programmes from the Malaysian Parliament when proceeding and also highlights, called "RTM Parlimen". It is broadcasting since late June.

On July 10 during Syahadah airing at 6:30 pm on TV1, I saw TV1 re-used its previous programme identifier used in 2012 which has the LPF rating box.

Media Prima
Emas, Emas Plus and Emas Style channels which are part of Media Prima Content Services are now available on ABNXcess digital cable TV, according to a press release by Media Prima. The latter two channels which are available only on ABNXcess while the former one is on TM's Hypp TV and ABNXcess. Emas Plus is a Malaywood channel which offers Malay drama and telemovies such as Spa Q, Bella and Ezora, and targets younger adults, yuppies and viewers from high-income households. Emas Style on the other hand is a lifestyle channel which airs earlier seasons of Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan and Ole-Ole Chef Wan. Emas Style targets the traditional urban modern Malay segment.

Media Prima announced a "No Free Gifts Policy" as part of the overall Media Prima's integrity initiative, also from another press release from Media Prima. Under the policy, Media Prima employees are not allowed to receive any forms of gratuity from external parties. Instead, Media Prima allows the practice of making charitable contributions under the extenal parties name to Media Prima's charity funds. This is to promote corporate responsibility. Datuk Johan Jaaffar, Chairman of Media Prima says that this will complement Media Prima's existing code of ethics.

Haliza Hashim has been a representative of TV3 in London, occasionally seen making news about Malaysian-related events around the United Kingdom and Europe, along with Didi Buidarto from Jakarta. Haliza Hashim has been with TV3 since the 1990s, evidenced from an episode of Sekapur Sirih in February 1994 that I saw on Emas Hypp TV.

On July 12, I found out that TV9's Raudhah programme block has two idents, each of them have different music but use the same animation visuals.

What I found out recently while seeing TV3's news programmes is TV3 news department has changed its jacket for news reporters. The new one has Media Prima logo at the front. The previous one has the name Malaysia and Media Prima's TV stations at the back. I also found out that TV3 has also changed its microphone head to a new one which has the current rendering of TV3's logo and the Malaysia name below the logo and a small blue strap at the top and bottom. The previous one has been used for a long time since 1990.

On July 14 during the start of Subuh prayers I saw TV9 using TV3's Azan Subuh video which is used by TV3 since last June. In last year's Ramadan TV9 uses its own version of Azan Subuh, but this broadcast was stopped when TV9 resumed back its broadcast start time at 6:30 am after Ramadan.

ABN
After looking at Media Prima's press release of the launch of Emas' new channels on ABNXcess, I surfed ABN's website. I found out that ABNXcess launches more channels than any other pay-TV provider. A unique part of ABNXcess that I found is they offer channels in Filipino, Malayalam, Bangladeshi, Telugu and  Nepalese through the Add-on package, therefore making ABNXcess really suited to the growing number of expatriates speaking these languages.

Extra content
I have made a report Malaysian TV presentation during Ramadan 1434H/2013M which will be updated throughout this Ramadan. Click here.

(Revised on July 21)