TM partners Media Prima for talk show on COVID-19 frontliners

Telekom Malaysia (TM) has jumped on board to support Media Prima's new talk show which features various groups of frontliners combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Titled "HeroKu" (which translates to "my hero"), the four-episode talk show will be aired weekly on TV3 channel, with each episode lasting 30 minutes. It will also be made available on TV3's YouTube channel, and via video portal Tonton. The talk show aims to show gratitude and appreciation to all medical professionals, armed forces and the police for their sacrifices during this period of time. 

HeroKu will include the activities of the volunteers, food delivery riders and TM technical team, the medical and security team together with auxiliary police officers, and delivery services. It will discuss the challenges faced by these groups of frontliners and provide Malaysians will an understanding of what they are doing in this period of time. HeroKu also enables audiences to feel the emotions of frontliners’ families, especially their parents and loved ones. In a statement to A+M, a spokesperson from Media Prima said it promoted HeroKu on print media, online, via bloggers, as well as TV3’s Facebook and Instagram page. The spokesperson added that for every episode aired, there will be a promo edit of the upcoming episodes to entice audience and keep the level of programme recall high. According to the spokesperson, HeroKu garnered 1.2 million viewers on its first episode.

Michael Chan, executive director and CEO of Media Prima OMNIA, said HeroKu is an opportunity for family members of frontliners to express love, gratitude, and appreciation for their efforts to ensure that Malaysians are all safe. Izlyn Ramli, vice president group brand and communications of TM, added that it aims to connect family members with the frontliners, who are separated from their loved ones due to their jobs at the front lines. Izlyn also said that HeroKu also aims to help Malaysians stay connected, entertained and productive while staying at home. 

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Meanwhile, Media Prima Digital (MPD) has been selected as one of the 18 organisations in the Google News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge, a global effort by Google to work with the news industry to help journalism thrive in a digital age. MPD’s esports and gaming portal, MyGameOn, was chosen to bring its ideas forward. With GNI’s support, it aims to build a content recommendation engine to increase the consumption of content from its community of gamers through personalisation. MPD is the only company selected in Malaysia, while Tech in Asia and kumparan were selected for the Singapore and Indonesia regions respectively. Other countries participating in GNI are Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Nicholas Sagau, group general manager of Media Prima Digital, said it has been working with both the public and private sectors to further expand esports while advocating the healthy and professional side of it. "With Google's support, we strive to continue delivering valuable content to our audience and are confidentthat we'll be able to take our vision for esports to the next level," he added.

Apart from MyGameOn, MPD also expanded its esports and gaming portfolio, as well as its digital presence regionally, by taking over the operations of gaming website IGN Southeast Asia in 2019. According to a press release, Media Prima's digital reach currently stands at over 15.3 million monthly unique visitors across the group’s digital platforms.

Last week, Johan Ishak left his role as CEO of Media Prima Television Networks (MPTN), A+M understands, close to three years after he assumed the role in October 2017. In an internal memo seen by A+M, group managing director Iskandar Mizal Mahmood will be taking on additional duties by leading MPTN. Media Prima's spokesperson confirmed the news to A+M.

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