TM’s RM300m plan for IPTV

Written by Daniel Khoo

Friday, 07 May 2010 10:31



KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) has allocated RM250 million to RM300 million to increase the channels for its Internet Protocol television (IPTV), which is part of its UniFi High Speed Broadband (HSBB) package.



TM CEO Datuk Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said yesterday the allocation was for a three-year period and it would hinge on the opportunities which would be on a case-by-case basis.



“The spending will depend on opportunities. We are very careful on the acquisition of content; it has to match the business per se. We must also ensure that our service is also attractive enough for our customers. It’s more of a balance rather than an aggressive one in terms of content offering for our customers,” he told reporters after its AGM.



Zamzamzairani added TM had no plans to produce its own content for its IPTV, adding it would be best to work with others in content development.



“We are looking at partnering with others in any kind of business format that is available out there,” he said.



TM currently offers 22 linear channels, video-on-demand and interactive services like games on its IPTV offering called HyppTV.



The HSBB project saw TM investing RM1.9 billion and the government RM920 million as of yesterday.



TM group chief financial officer Datuk Bazlan Osman said this year, TM was expected to invest RM2 billion and government RM1 billion in the HSBB.



The HSBB project is a public-private partnership between TM and the government costing RM11.3 billion, of which RM2.4 billion will be funded by the government and RM8.9 billion by TM.



Since its launch on March 24, TM has signed up over 1,700 customers while another 10,000 would-be subscribers have registered their interest and waiting for the service installation.



TM said it is on track to provide its HSBB to 750,000 homes and is on schedule to provide the service to 1.3 million premises by 2012.



Zamzamzairani said TM was aiming to maintain its dividend payout in its financial year ending Dec 31, 2010.



“We aim to pay out RM700 million in dividends or 90% of normalised profit after tax and minority interests, whichever is the higher,” he said.



At the AGM, shareholders approved the proposed final gross dividend of 13 sen per share amounting to RM348.8 million. The company is paying out total dividends of RM706.5 million or 19.75 sen net dividend per share for FY09.





This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, May 7, 2010.



http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/in-the-financial-daily/165586-tms-rm300m-plan-for-iptv.html