Established on 1 April as Radio Malaya, it is the first and the oldest broadcaster in the country. On 28 December that year, television service in Malaysia began with the establishment of Televisyen Malaysia.
RTM came into its current state with its present name in when it merged its radio and television services to form the present-day broadcast department. Its work is formerly funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all Malaysian households, companies, and organisations until the licence was phased out in RTM monopolised the free-to-air television until and also radio until , when private television and radio stations such as TV3 and Best FM began operations.
Currently, it operates 7 television channels and 34 radio stations nationwide as well as an over-the-top streaming service, RTM Klik. Since its formation in , RTM has played a prominent role in Malaysian life and culture. History of local broadcasting in Malaysia began in when an electrical engineer from the Johor Government, A. Birch, brought the first radio set into British Malaya.
He then established the Johor Wireless Association in and commenced broadcasting through meter waves. In , Sir Earl from the Singapore Port Authority commenced its short wave broadcast every fortnight either on Sundays or Wednesdays.
The corporation was taken over by the Straits Settlements Government in , subsequently nationalised and reorganised as the Malaya Broadcasting Corporation and was placed under the British Department of Information. These two radio stations offers language services in Malay, Chinese and English, in addition to the native languages of Iban for Sarawak and Kadazan for Sabah.
