Malaysia

In the last six years, multichannel-TV household penetration increased to around 53% capturing 33.3% share of all 4+ viewing in 2011. Multichannel provider Astro’s share of viewing excludes free-to-air data, which is separately attributed to FTA channels. Share of subscription viewing within multichannel-only homes has risen to 72.1%. With a diverse population (62% Malay, 29% Chinese and 9% Indian/Others) multichannel TV, supported by local programming, meets the needs of a fragmented audience.

Nielsen’s latest Advertising Information Service (AIS) report for Malaysia showed total advertising expenditure (adex) in the country slipped 0.9% year-on-year to RM856.21mil in March 2012.  But there was good news for Pay TV** which was up 6.7% YoY March 2012 compared to a big decrease of -10.4% for FTA TV. Pay TV’s share of the adspend pie grew to 21.7% just behind FTA TV’s share of 25.5%.

TV accounted for 50.9% of total adspend in 2011; the top five sectors were toiletries (21.4%), beverage-non alcoholic (12.3%), foodstuff (9.2%), communication (8.4%) and household products (6%). Nielsen Audience Measurement monitored 18 channels as of May 2012.

Currently, there are three government and four commercial FTA channels operated by Media Prima. Astro provides Malaysia’s only multichannel service, broadcasting more than 100 channels via satellite. Measurement of both FTA and satellite TV channel viewing is provided by Nielsen Audience Measurement based on its 1,000-home people meter panel representing the population of Peninsular Malaysia.

**As at March 2011, Pay TV adspend data covered 11 Pay TV channels. Effective from 1 June 2011, Nielsen has added Disney channel as the 12th channel in Pay TV adspend monitoring.