The growth of pay television services in Malaysia will open up business opportunities for the local film industry, said Deputy Information, Communications and Culture Minister Joseph Salang.
He said the ministry would ensure that the licence for pay television broadcasting services would be simplified according to the criteria specified.
“The ministry feels that local drama and film producers will have an opportunity to earn lucrative income through the showing of their products on newly set up pay television broadcasts,” he said when winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2012 for the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture at the Dewan Negara yesterday.
Pay TV stations could provide their services through various methods such as the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) on the website, cables connected to the homes, hotels or subscribers’ offices, satelite dishes and so on, he said.
On the disruption of pay TV broadcast services, Astro whenever it rained, Salang said the problem could not be resolved completely because the system used, that is KU-Band, was not weather-proof especially during the rain.
“As an alternative to receive better broadcast quality, Astro subscribers are encouraged to change their old decoder system to the new one, which is Astro B.yond,” he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry felt that Astro was providing the most reasonable service package at RM37.95 per month for the cheapest package, which was in fact much cheaper compared to the price of RM49.95 for the same package charged by Astro several years ago.
Meanwhile, on the six per cent tax on users of pre-paid lines, he said the ministry was in the negotiation stage with the Finance Ministry and the telecommunication companies. The Senate will sit again on Monday.
– Bernama
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