KOTA KINABALU, Feb 20 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The government will be giving out an additional 300,000 units of free myFreeview decoders to B40 households and people with disabilities (OKU) throughout the country, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
This will be in addition to the two million units of free myFreeview decoders already provisioned and the cost of RM30 million for the additional decoders would be fully borne by the government,
“We are aware that there are requests from the rakyat (people) to get these free decoders. As a caring government, we are giving due consideration on this,” he said at a ceremony to hand over the decoders to registered recipients at the KKMM Integrated Complex here today.
Also present were Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Chief Digital Officer Gerard Lim Kim Meng and MYTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd (MYTV) CEO Mazlan Mahdi.
Some 3,000 units of the free decoders will be given out to registered B40 households (lower income group) and OKU at the premises from today till Saturday.
Gobind said the government always recognised the needs of the people especially of those in the B40 group and OKU in keeping track of developments in the digital era and was committed to realising its Shared Prosperity Vision.
Gobind said Malaysia’s transition from analogue to digital broadcasts was a major leap forward and offered broadcasting industry players an opportunity to blaze a new trail in the local broadcasting scene.
“I urge local producers to grab the opportunity to come up with a variety of TV content for this digital TV platform,” he said.
At a press conference later, Gobind said 1.81 million of the free decoders had been distributed throughout the nation to the target groups.
In Sabah, more that 170,000 of the 228,767 free decoders provisioned had been distributed to eligible Sabahans, he said, adding that his ministry though MYTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd (MYTV) would be monitoring the broadcasts in order to iron out any glitches that may arise.
myFreeview Digital Broadcast is an initiative by the government to provide the public with the best TV and radio broadcasting services.
–NNN- BERNAMA