KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 17): Green Packet Bhd is set to announce that it has secured a RM300 million contract to supply set-top boxes to MYTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd, the company spearheading the national digital terrestrial television (DTT) rollout.

Sources told theedgemarkets.com that the contract was awarded directly to Green Packet, which was contracted to develop the decoder and supply 4.2 million units to MYTV.

"The other contender for this contract did not meet the technical requirement, especially in terms of producing viewership report, where Green Packet stood out. They (Green Packet) are about to make a public announcement, either after 5pm tomorrow (Jan 18) or latest on Friday (Jan 19)," said one source.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced in June last year that the migration towards digital broadcast, which comes under the National Digitisation Blue Print, will see 4.2 million BR1M receiving households entitled to special MYTV decoders in phases by June 2018, when Malaysia will officially shut down analogue TV transmission.

Najib had said that some 2.2 million BR1M households will receive the MYTV decoders free in phases, while MYTV has committed an additional 2 million decoders.

Checks with the Companies Commission of Malaysia showed that MYTV is wholly owned by Altel Holdings Sdn Bhd, which in turn is wholly owned by Altel Group Sdn Bhd.

Altel Group is jointly owned by Datuk Hilmi Mohd Noor and Azman Hanafi Abdullah.

At 3.15pm, Green Packet's share price was trading at 56 sen, down one sen or 1.75%, giving it a market capitalisation of RM420.57 million. The counter has risen 62% since October last year.