Pakatan Harapan Youth Promises To Show Premier League Matches On RTM If It Wins GE14
The promise was made during the wing's inaugural convention.
By John Lim — 08 Jan 2018, 01:18 PM
The youth wing of Pakatan Harapan (PH) pledged yesterday that it will broadcast all international sports matches, including the popular Premier League, on RTM should it win the next general elections
The free-to-air EPL promise was launched alongside 10 other proposals during the wing's inaugural convention at Empire Hotel yesterday, 7 January.
Dubbed the "PH Youth Offer", the proposals were set up to help attract youth voters in the 14th general elections.
The promise, which falls under the fifth core focusing on sports and recreation, will also bring Spanish La Liga and other sports series to state-owned RTM
"As a Liverpool fan, I want everyone to witness the strength of this team. The broadcast rights for major sports should be open to everyone and not just paid TV, such as Astro," Pakatan Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad told The Malaysian Insight.
Zubair Rahim, a representative from Amanah, added that the promise would help families to spend more time together.
"When more people have access to these football matches, they would want to stay home and would not mind spending time together," he said as quoted by Malay Mail Online.
Among others, the proposals also suggested free motorcycle licences for youths and repayment of PTPTN loans only when the person's salary has reached RM4,000 per month
Other proposals were youth entrepreneur funds and a marriage incentive of RM500 for youths getting married for the first time.
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the broadcasting rights for international sports matches are bought through a bidding process
"They promised that the English and Spanish League matches will be broadcast live by RTM. I have asked my friends at the television station how much it costs to broadcast live matches, and this broadcast right is through the bidding process... every year the bid reaches hundreds of millions of ringgit, maybe more than RM100 million.
If it is given to RTM, who will pay for it? In the end, the people’s money is used. Say, you have to pay RM200 million to have a broadcast, don’t tell me the money will be spent just like that?" he said at a press conference yesterday.