Digital TV Transformation in Myanmar

Myanmar has adopted DVB-T2 as the national digital terrestrial broadcasting standard and is following the digital transformation according to ITU’s guidelines and Myanmar's National Digital Broadcasting Committee (MNDBC).

Television service in Myanmar was first introduced in 1979 as a test trial in Yangon. On 3 June 1980 Myanmar Radio & Television (MRTV) was launched and regular television service formally began in 1981. Today there are four TV Broadcasters in Myanmar.

• Myanmar Radio & Television (MRTV)
• Myawaddy (MWD)
• MRTV-4
• Sky Net TV

Myanmar Radio & Television (MRTV) is National Broadcaster under the Ministry of Information (MOI), broadcasting TV nationwide, with the 233-retransmitting stations, which can cover 92.3% of the population. The existing analog system is NTSC-M (3.58 MHz color system). Most of the remote station are using VHF band and only a few are UHF band.

Myawaddy Television (MWD) is under the Ministry of Defense. Broadcasting via DVB-T system since Nov 2011. MWD are transmitting at 13 high power station and can cover up to 60% of the population. They broadcast six Free to Air channels. MWD controls their set-top Boxes, which means not every set-top Box sold in Myanmar can receive their FTA signal.

MRTV-4 is jointly operated by MRTV and Forever Group Co., Ltd. MRTV-4 and associated channels started DVB-T in 2005. They are running a subscription based system (Pay TV). About 50 channels are broadcasting in Yangon and 10 channels in 28 remote stations. Forever Group has launched 8 HD and 16 SD programs in Yangon using two DVB-T2 transmitters.

Sky Net TV is jointly operated by MRTV & Shwe Than Lwin Co., Ltd. This is a Direct To Home (DTH) Multiplay service system, transmitting over 60 channels. DTH was started at 2011.

Digital Broadcasting Transition

MRTV as a National Broadcaster, is following the digital transformation according to ITU’s guidelines and Myanmar's National Digital Broadcasting Committee (MNDBC).

In 2006, MNDBC recommended DVB-T as the national digital terrestrial broadcasting standard, which was subsequently approved by the government on October 2, 2008. In 2012, the MNDBC finalized to recommend DVB-T2 to replace DVB-T as the national digital terrestrial broadcasting standard in lieu with the ASEAN Digital Switch-Over.

In the initial state, the On Air transmission standard was MPEG-4 SD.

Date for nationwide analogue switch off (ASO) is 31 Dec 2020 (tentative) and the Ministry of Information is responsible for the ASO.

Digital Switch Over Plan

• Phase 1: As a pilot project (3 KW) TX starting in: Yangon, Naypyitaw and Sagaing Dec 2013.
• Phase 2: Year 2013-2014: 20 Stations
• Phase 3: Year 2014-2015: 110 Stations
• Phase 4: Year 2015-2016: 117 Stations

In total 250 Stations. Out of those, 25 are high power stations, the rest are low power.

No. of Stations

3 Stations
20 Stations
110 Stations
117 Stations

Simulcasting (Analog/Digital)

2014 - December 2015
2015 - December 2016
2016 - December 2017
2017 - December 2018

Analogue Switch Off

January, 2016
January, 2017
January, 2018
January, 2019