PUTRAJAYA, May 31 — Multimedia and Communications Minister Gobind Singh today said that state broadcaster RTM has already received RM15 million in sponsorship, to cover part of the RM30 million broadcast rights for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

In a press conference today, Gobind said that he is confident of receiving more of such sponsorships, as talks are still underway with other prospective sponsors.

“I will definitely make it available. I want to again stress, that I want to be transparent,” Gobind said, when asked to reveal details of the sponsors.

“For 41 telecasts, the cost is RM30 million.

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“Apart from that, I want to say that there are efforts to get sponsors to foot the cost, and I have already gotten sponsorship of RM15 million.

“What I also want to state here is that when the Cabinet made the decision, the prime minister said that this was an international event and it is only four years once. So, bearing that in mind, a decision was made, despite the short time period, because as it stands we have collected RM15 million. We are working on the rest of it,” Gobind said.

He added that a press conference will be held soon to update the public on the status of the sponsorships.

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Yesterday, Gobind said the Cabinet has agreed to broadcast the 2018 Fifa World Cup ‘live’ via RTM.

He said the federal government will try to keep the fee low by securing the broadcasting rights through a directly negotiated tender.

Gobind said sponsorships and advertising are expected to help lower the cost, with the Finance Ministry scheduled to release a cost breakdown today.

He said RTM is expected to broadcast 27 of the 41 World Cup matches ‘live’, with the remaining games to be delayed telecasts.

In Malaysia, cable network Astro is currently the only network with broadcasting rights to show all World Cup matches ‘live’.

The media rights to show the World Cup in Malaysia have been held by M-League Marketing Sdn Bhd since 2002, which then licenses it to Astro.

The ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition had included the ‘live’ broadcasts of all major sports leagues around the world, including the English Premier League, as part of its manifesto for the 14th general election.

After coming into power, PH revealed that Malaysia has over RM1 trillion in liabilities.

PH has also announced various cost-cutting measures such as a 10 per cent pay cut for ministers, and the scrapping of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail project as well as the third line for the MRT.