For the longest time, we have been wondering if TM’s HyppTV will be broadcasting matches from the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2014. After all, the IPTV service does offer plenty of football contents such as UEFA Champions League, and English Premier League (via collaboration with Astro). Well, TM has finally answered our question recently and…unfortunately, it turns out that the answer is no.
Not even through RTM Free-To-Air (FTA) channels that are also shown on HyppTV. So, whenever a World Cup 2014 match takes place on RTM’s TV 1 or TV 2, these channels will be blacked out on HyppTV.
According to the Executive Vice President of New Media for TM, Jeremy Kung during a media briefing last night, Astro currently holds the exclusive rights of World Cup 2014 for Malaysia which somehow includes the availability of matches for RTM channels even though they are FTA channels.
Jeremy added that despite the fact that paying for contents that are shown through FTA channels is actually against the company’s policy (more on that later), TM did engaged directly with Astro in order to negotiate the terms to allow World Cup matches on RTM to be shown on HyppTV. However, the negotiation eventually broke down as TM deemed that the fee Astro requested for the rights was rather too high.
Due to that, TM will be offering free contents to HyppTV subscribers throughout World Cup 2014 as a form of compensation to customers as well as to fill in the empty slots that are caused by the black outs. For example, HyppTV will be showing selected group of local movies (listed above) on RTM’s TV 1 and TV 2 whenever a live or delayed telecast of World Cup match takes place on those channels.
At the same time, HyppTV Sports Pack subscribers will be given free access to RTL CBS Extreme HD channels for 3 months starting from 1 June to 31 August 2014. TM apparently has already send a letter to all HyppTV customers regarding this matter but in case you have no received it yet, we have a reproduction of it as below:
Well, it is indeed a sad news for HyppTV subscribers out there. Guess it is now time to dust off that antenna…
[RTM’s black out on HyppTV image: Hazimworks]
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