Sunday 30 June 2013

Media news (episode 19)

Welcome to this week's media news.

Four Asean countries have agreed to set aside TV broadcasting airwaves for 4G mobile broadband. The countries are Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. This was announced by  the Minister for Communications and Information of Singapore, Yaacob Ibrahim at the opening of the week-long Infocomm Media Business Exchange 2013 (imbX) event. (The Straits Times via Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union on 19.6.2013)

Media Prima 
On the afternoon of June 29, an ex-TV3 staff reunion ceremony was held at Zam Zam Cafe and Satay Club in Petaling Jaya. The ex-TV3 staffs who came to the ceremony were Tan Sri Mohd Desa Pachi and Christine Ling. The ex-TV3 staffs contacted together through Facebook. The event was reported on Buletin Utama later in the evening. Also, Buletin Utama's ending on the same day was just a shot of Buletin Utama's studio desk instead of the usual recorded special images of the day's event which was reported on the programme.

Recently I observed TV3 starting to do sponsorship bumpers that air before and after each programme, mostly at primetime. The sponsor is Nestle with its products such as Milo and Nestle.

About TV3's primetime schedule changes that I mentioned last week, according to General Manager of TV3 and TV9 Sherina Mohamed Nordin in a press release made by TV3, the changes were made to allow TV3 to remain as the number one TV channel and the most-watched TV channel. The reasons why TV3 had to make the change is because viewers were familiar with the airtime and the programme associated, such as Majalah 3 on Saturday and the Aksi drama block on Monday. In the new schedule, for example, TV3 wants to air entertainment programmes on weekends as it is usually the family leisure time with programmes such as Tunggu Sekejap and dramedy programmes. This was based on a detailed survey based on the viewers' preferences.

TV3's primetime schedule changes means that TV9 also has minor changes in its primetime schedule for Monday to Wednesday. Skrin di 9 moved to Monday from Wednesday and Ratu and Chamsarang changed from Monday and Tuesday to Tuesday to Wednesday. Airtime does not change.

The Phat Fabes and Ben Show, a talk show which presented by Fly FM deejays Phat Fabes and Ben, airs on both 8TV and NTV7. It was recorded at somewhere near Jalan P Ramlee in Kuala Lumpur. 

Astro  
This week I saw ITV Choice on channel 735 (the channel that airs programmes from ITV in the UK and airs in 4:3 format upconverted from HD) switched from being free-to-view to only available for Metro pack subscribers. This is probably because Astro does not want the Metro pack to have less than three channels and wants another channel to fill the gap. Channel 731 that was occupied by Bio is now gone and no longer seen, as previously reported. I also observed that Media Prima's TV channels' video signals on Astro have improved.

TV Alhijrah
I sometimes watch Berita Ringkas Alhijrah which airs at 6:00 pm where during news reports about accidents, it will show a computer animated reconstruction, but I'm not really sure whether the animated reconstruction was made by the news agency that provide the news if an accident occured overseas or TV Alhijrah itself. Probably made by TV Alhijrah.

(Revised on July 7)

Saturday 22 June 2013

Media news (episode 18)

Welcome to this week's media news.

RTM
TV1 will air the Majlis Tilawah Al-Quran Peringkat Antarabangsa from June 29 to July 6 at 8:45 pm.

On June 21, TV2 started its own programme identifier which appears throughout any programme, following TV3, TV9 and TV Alhijrah's footsteps of having it. TV2's programme identifier appears a few minutes after the "sekarang, selepas ini" graphic (still the same since 2011) which appears at the start and after each commercial break of any programme. The programme identifier's text is written in all upper cases, while TV3 and TV9 write using lower cases. TV3, TV9 and TV2's programme identifier are located at the top-left while TV Alhijrah's programme identifier is located at the lower-right with different design with either text or with logo. TV Alhijrah's programme identifier started in 2012 and is used only for certain programmes.

The picture below is how TV2's programme identifier looks like when I first saw it.



Media Prima
TV3's Majalah 3 has moved its airing day from Saturday to Monday starting June 24. The airtime still remains at 9:00 pm. Majalah 3 has been on Saturday for a long time, since the late 1990s. Majalah 3 has been in various airtimes before the late 1990s. The Saturday 9:00 pm slot will now be occupied by the new season of Tunggu Sekejap talkshow hosted by Awie. The Monday 9:00 pm slot was occupied by Aksi (action drama block) since 2004. Aksi is now moved to Wednesday.

On June 23, I saw this promo which was the cause of Majalah 3 moving to another airing day. TV3 has changed its primetime schedule.

Astro
A new channel called Astro Maya HD will be launched on 24 June on channel 135 and is broadcast free-to-view unlike Astro Mustika HD which requires subscribing the Mustika pack. This will be Astro's second Malay content channel in HD after Astro Mustika HD which was launched last year. The channel will carry HD content programming from Astro Ria, Astro Prima and Astro Oasis, says galaksi-media.com. Other interesting news, also according to galaksi-media.com are a HD version of Astro Hua Hee Dai, Astro's Hokkien content channel, will be available on channel 332 and the launch of Astro Lifestyle Centre at the 2nd floor of Mid Valley Megamall on June 18. The subscription-free satellite service NJOI has also added NTV7, 8TV and TV Alhijrah to its channel lineup. There are also channels exclusive to Astro B.yond IPTV-Maxis through Astro Select.

Astro aims to achieve full HD set-top-box conversion by the end of 2013, reports Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. Chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan at Invest Malaysia 2013 says over 64 percent of customers during the first quarter of 2013 subscribed to HD and other value-added services. Over 168,000 devices were swapped out during the period; Astro priotises those who would most likely go to premium services. The number of HD channels on Astro will increase with the increase of its bandwidth capacity next year.

Also from Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Measat has started trialing 4K Ultra HD video with Ericsson, beginning with the Measat 3 satellite. 

Bio channel on Astro channel 731 was closed on June 14 when I checked the channel on June 19. This is most probably because to give way for the new channel called Lifestyle on Astro channel 709.

Hypp TV
Warner TV has changed its picture quality from HD to SD since this week. The channel number does not change.

(Updated June 23)

Sunday 16 June 2013

Media news (episode 17)

Welcome to this week's media news, retitled as "Media news" for the time being. I missed doing last week's because I was busy with school so I made one this week.

RTM
The 56th Majlis Tilawah Al-Quran Peringkat Kebangsaan was held from 10 to 16 June at the Pusat Islam at Kota Bharu, Kelantan. It is aired between 8:45 pm and 11:00 pm. The event was aired on TV1 and simulcasted on TV Alhijrah as well.

Media Prima
Media Prima has introduced its line up of programmes that will air during the coming Ramadan and Aidilfitri. TV3 which concentrates on the mature age group will air under the branding Seindah Ramadan and Anugerah Syawal with programmes such as Jejak Rasul 19, Unsung Places, Singgah Sahur, Selera Madrasah and Kisah Mualaf. TV9 will air programmes such as Mencari Resepi Temurun and Jom Berbuka. Tonton on the other hand will premiere the telemovie Kampung Gangster Raya twenty-four hours before the first airing on TV9 while the telemovie KarlosRaya will have a second screen through smart gadgets which allows the viewers to interact directly with the casts of the telemovie and exclusive videos while watching the actual broadcast.
Ketupat Rendang Kopi O, Mencari Resepi Temurun, Jom Berbuka, Unplugged Rockestra and Versus Raya - See more at: http://www.noodls.com/view/6DC36DEC7CA3DA8D9107D1A4630A70389A9FB759#sthash.pIZMN5VS.dpuf
Selera Madrasah, Kisah Mualaf
Selera Madrasah, Kisah Mualaf
(Source: Berita TV3 and Media Prima press release via Noodls)

Planet Kiara, which has just completed re-running its thirteen Season One episodes, continues with season two, with another thirteen episodes since June 12 on TV3. Instead of airing new episodes every Thursday as it did in season one, new episodes will air every Tuesday to Thursday at 6:30 pm. The last episode is expected to be aired on July 10, most probably to give way for the airing of Ramadan-themed programmes the next day after Planet Kiara ended, especially Jejak Rasul and also lack of enough time. Planet Kiara actually had did produced 26 episodes, but halved it into two seasons.

TV3 has problems with its on-screen logo's late appearance at around 5 seconds at the start of each programme and after each commercial break. This has happened very often since last month. But on June 16 when I woke up early in the morning, I saw TV3 having its own programme identifier just like how TV9 did. It appears as text only and is positioned at the extreme top-left of the screen. The play logo after the "SEKARANG" word is colour coded just like how TV9 did between April 2011 and February 2013; for example blue for general programming such as Bismillah and Al-Hidayah and yellow for children's programmes such as Canimals (matching the Bananana children's programmes block colour, not the background colour for TV3's news presenters ident).

(Update 22/6/2013) The picture below shows TV3's programme identifier design which appears at the start and after the end of each commercial break. These were shot the week after this was posted.

 
Jejak Rasul 19, Unsung Places dan Sembang SahurASTROAstro
Astro
Astro On Demand, a collection of channels which provide first-run broadcasts of TVB dramas at the same time as Hong Kong has moved its channel numbers from the 900 slot (where the channels are located since its launch in 2007) to 350 and 360 slots since the first week of June. Astro On Demand has also added a HD channel which is airing on channel 350. Other channels on Astro on Demand are in SD only.

A new channel on Astro has been added. The new channel is called Lifetime and it is part of the A+E Network which includes History, History HD, BIO and Crime & Investigation. It started broadcasting on June 14 at 6:00 pm. The channel offers a mixture of TV dramas, reality shows and movies where Lifetime produced more movies than any other channels of the world, claims Michele Schofield, the senior vice-president, programming & marketing, Asia Pacific A+E Networks. It also wants to do localised programming like what the other A+E Network channels did. The channel targets young women at the average age at 30 and also invites men to also watch the channel's programmes. (Source: The Sun Daily) Through self-observation during the launch, I found out that Lifetime is broadcast in 14:9 aspect ratio, like how Cartoon Network Asia did. I'm planning to do a list of channels broadcasting in 14:9 aspect ratio later. The first programme aired was Dance Moms Season 1.

Hypp TV 
Hypp TV had another 7-day free viewing period between June 7 and 13 after a technical problem that occured on June 4.

(Edited on June 21 and 24)

Saturday 15 June 2013

RTM 67th Tetap Unggul ident

Yesterday I recorded RTM's 67th anniversary ident which is in use since April 2013. The ident is very simple, especially the animation and the use of library music.




History of Media Prima's SMS sending number

This is the history of Media Prima's SMS sending number which is accessible by sending an SMS message to a number in a mobile phone and then receive an SMS message from Media Prima through services such as contests and voting. SMS service is a form of interactivity between viewers.

The SMS sending numbers are compiled by myself through watching Emas Hypp TV ch 112.

2004: 39111 (in Aku Kau Berbeza), 33366 (in Senario Gelak Kaya) [confirmed by @Fawwaz93 on 3.2.2014]
2005: 33533 (in Senario), 39039 (in Anugerah Juara Lagu)
2006: 32232 (in Selamba Serius Silkygirl on NTV7), 36558 (in Rock Unite on NTV7), 32121 (in Mentor on TV3), 32277 (in Saturday Night Live on NTV7)
now (since 2009): 33399

(Updated on 21.6.2013, 5.2.2014, 8.2.2014 and 2.7.2014)

Friday 7 June 2013

Three shortlisted bidders submitted proposed business plan for future digital terrestrial TV

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has made a press release that the three shortlisted bidders have submit proposed business plan for the future digital terrestrial TV broadcasting in Malaysia on 4.6.2013.

The bidders are:
1. i-Media Broadcasting Solutions Sdn Bhd
2. Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd
3. Redtone Network Sdn Bhd

Results of the evaluation process will be made on the third quarter of 2013 (sometime between July and September).

The roll-out of digital terrestrial TV service will be at the end of the first quarter of 2014 and will have nationwide coverage by end 2015. 

Source: http://www.skmm.gov.my/skmmgovmy/media/General/pdf/Press_Release_130604_DTTB.pdf

SIS TV9 studio set

This is a compilation of screenshots of SIS Semangat Intelek Swadaya studio set which is only used for shots of the presenters. The rest are just recorded segments related to this week's topic in the programme accompanied by a narrator. There are two separately designed sets in the studio. Judging from the screenshots taken, the recording of the programme might have taken place at NTV7 Glenmarie instead of Sri Pentas because this programme's studio set is used for recording only and also because of the floor space of the studio, in my opinion. I'm not a regular viewer of this programme, I just want to see how the programme looks like.

Taken from tonight's repeat of last Saturday's SIS on TV9 via Tonton live TV streaming

Just spotted: Sri Pentas reception area renovated

Taken from Malaysia Hari Ini 7.6.2013 (Tonton live TV streaming)

The reception area is in the extreme right of this screenshot


Tuesday 4 June 2013

Trunked radio service closes on 1.1.2016

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has announced on a notice on The Star on 3.6.2013 saying that the trunked radio service operating at 806-821 and 851-866 MHz will stop operating on 1.1.2016.

Media Prima meeting room at Sri Pentas: 1997 look vs 2013 look

This is how the Media Prima meeting room at Sri Pentas looks like. The old TV3 clock wall still remains there, including some of the decoration walls and the desk of the meeting room.

Sources: Melodi 1997 (Emas Hypp TV ch 104) and Buletin 1:30 4.6.2013 (Tonton live TV streaming)

Title changed on June 7; original title was "Media Prima meeting room at Sri Pentas: comparison between 1997 and 2013"