Malaysia will start to roll out DTT transmissions using the DVB-T standard from 2009. The decision by the country’s government, which was announced during the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Digital TV Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, comes as result of a trial involving 1,000 users in the city. It began last November, with one multiplex operating on UHF channel 44 using the 8k mode and providing five TV channels and seven radio stations, and will now be followed by a DVB-H trial.
Malaysia’s announcement comes at a time when the governments of Southeast Asian countries are considering the possibility of introducing a uniform digital broadcast standard across the region. DVB-T has already been adopted in Singapore, Vietnam and Myanmar, with strong recommendations for the standard from broadcast industry groups in the Philippines and Indonesia. With the population of Southeast Asia estimated at 560 million, the common adoption of DVB-T would allow consumers in the region to benefit from huge economies of scale.