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TV Host / Emcee

Pengacara Majlis · Kreatif & Media

Starting
RM1,500 - RM3,000 (per event)
Senior
RM8,000 - RM30,000+
Entry
Diploma / TVET
Short answerA presenter runs something in front of an audience — a TV show, radio, a corporate function, a launch, a podcast or a live stream.
What decides income in this career, and students almost always get it wrong: TV work is the most recognised and not the best paid.
The real money is in corporate emceeing — conferences, awards nights, product launches, annual general meetings.
The reason: a TV station pays a fixed rate and has many candidates. A company is paying to reduce risk on a day that cannot go wrong.
No licence, no degree required. You are judged on footage of you running something.
Language is your largest asset — a presenter who can run a function confidently in Malay and English charges more, and adding Mandarin opens a real third market.

What does a TV Host / Emcee do?

Hosts TV shows, ceremonies and corporate events — personality and fluency are the capital.

A day in the life

Hosts/emcees run events & shows: corporate functions, weddings, TV/radio, live-selling streams.
The real work: studying clients & audiences, scripting the flow, controlling tempo & energy, rescuing awkward moments.
Malaysia's market is multilingual — BM/English/Chinese (or all three!) emcees are in demand.

Is this right for you?

A good fit if you: come alive in front of crowds, improvise when plans break, keep voice & energy for 4 hours, and accept weekend work.
Less suitable if you: freeze at microphones or need fixed schedules.

Salary & career ladder

Income range — and this is per-event pay
Small / community function emcee: RM300–800 per function.
Corporate emcee (new): RM1,000–2,500 per function.
Corporate emcee (established): RM3,000–8,000 per function.
Known bilingual corporate emcee: RM8,000–20,000 per function.
TV host: a per-episode rate, and lower than people expect.
Radio (in-house): RM3,000–7,000 a month as a salary.
Brand podcast / live stream host: RM1,500–6,000 per session.

Read that list again
Corporate functions beat TV, and not by a little.
A TV station pays a fixed rate and has a queue of candidates. A company is paying to make sure its RM400,000 function does not go wrong.
The strategy that works: use TV or social media to become known, and sell that recognition to corporate clients.

Language equals rate
This is one of the few careers where an extra language can double your fee.
Malay only — a full market, ordinary rates.
Malay + English — corporate functions, and nearly every large function needs both.
Add Mandarin — a third market, and the number of presenters who do all three well is small.

Choose the industry, not only the craft
This is the most useful advice in this whole category, and almost nobody gives it.
Two people with the same skill can earn twice the difference, and what decides it is not talent — it is who is paying.
Pays low: small agencies, work for small businesses, general social media content. High competition, low client budgets.
Pays high: banks and financial services, technology companies, oil and gas, product companies, multinationals. Their budgets are larger and the cost of bad work is higher.
And highest: overseas clients paying in foreign currency — possible in creative work because the output is a file.
The most expensive mistake in this field is spending five years getting better at your craft while staying in an industry that cannot pay for it.

What AI changes
Exposed: voiceover, narration reads, radio ads, recorded explainer content. Synthetic voice has already taken this work, and it is not coming back.
Not exposed, and this is the whole of live work:
When something fails live. The microphone dies, a speaker does not appear, the video does not play. Someone has to fill those fifty seconds in front of 600 people.
Reading the room. Knowing the audience is tired and cutting the next section short.
Responsibility. A company hires a human because a human can be held accountable for what happens on stage.
The honest conclusion: recorded voice work is shrinking. Live presenting is not, and the gap between the two is widening.
The practical advice that follows: if you want this career, build towards live events rather than towards voice work.

City vs hometown

Events in every town; premium corporate in KL.
A small-town bilingual emcee owns the local market.

Study path after SPM / UEC

What students almost always get wrong about this career
TV work is the most recognised. It is not the best paid.
The real money is in corporate emceeing — conferences, awards nights, product launches, annual general meetings.
The reason is obvious once you see it: a TV station pays a fixed rate and has a queue of candidates. A company running a RM400,000 awards night is paying you to make sure the day does not go wrong — and that is worth far more to them.
Smart TV presenters use that exposure to raise their corporate rate. That is how this career actually works.

The route
SPM → school events, debate, speech → real small functions → build footage → agency or direct bookings → corporate, TV, digital.

Your largest asset, and it can be built starting now
Language.
A presenter who can run a function confidently in Malay and English charges more than one who can only do one.
Add Mandarin and you have a real third market, and the number of presenters who can do all three well is small.
This is an underexploited Malaysian advantage, and it is one of the few cases where a language equals an hourly rate directly.

The skills that separate presenters who get booked again
Recovery. The microphone dies, a speaker is late, the video does not play. Your value is the next fifty seconds on stage.
Preparation. Getting every name and title right. This sounds small and it is not — mispronouncing a Datuk's name in front of 600 people is a mistake that gets remembered.
Reading the room. Knowing when to cut short, when to slow down.
Voice and breath. These are trainable, and most people do not train them.

What changed
Digital added jobs. Brands run live streams, podcasts and online events, and all of them need someone to run them.
It also means you can build an audience without a TV station's permission, which was not true ten years ago.

The honest part
Work arrives by event, not by month. Weekends and nights. Income is unstable until you have repeat clients.
And it depends on your appearance and energy in ways that are not fair — that is true, and it is better to know now.
What balances it: a good corporate emcee gets recommended from company to company, and repeat clients are the entire business.

Related fields
Event manager — you will work with them at every function. Journalist — news presenting overlaps. PR — launches and media events. Social media editor — the digital side.If you are taking the UEC instead of SPM
Everything above still applies to you — the subjects are the same disciplines, only a different exam paper. What changes is the route after it.
The UEC is not accepted for direct entry into a Malaysian public university degree. That is why independent school students overwhelmingly go to private universities in Malaysia, or abroad.
The UEC is treated as equivalent to STPM and A-Level, and it is recognised in the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia and Taiwan — which is why the overseas rate from independent schools is so high.
And the part that costs families real money — read this one properly:
PTPTN eligibility runs through SPM, and a UEC alone does not carry it. To keep the loan available you need a complete SPM, which means two things people get wrong:
Sejarah must be passed. Since SPM 2013 a pass in Sejarah (minimum E) is compulsory for the certificate itself — fail it and you do not have a complete SPM at all.
Bahasa Melayu is usually required at credit (grade C), not merely a pass.
The institution and programme must also be PTPTN-recognised — check that on the PTPTN gateway before you commit to a college.
The UEC route pushes you towards a private degree, and PTPTN is what pays for it. If you have not sat SPM, sit it — and do not treat Sejarah as the throwaway paper.
These conditions change. Verify the current rules with PTPTN before relying on any of this.

Universities

None needed; public-speaking/acting classes help.

Tuition fees

Nearly zero — event attire & your own microphone.

Scholarships

Not applicable.

Certification & licence

The portfolio is the qualification — and that means something specific
No body licenses creative work in Malaysia. No protected title, no registration, no examination.
What exists instead is your work, and employers judge it in a very short time.
What that means in practice:
You can start building your qualification today. Unlike medicine or law, nobody stops you doing real work at sixteen.
A degree opens the first interview and not much more. After that, it is the portfolio.
Be wary of colleges selling "creative certificates". In a field with no regulator, nobody validates what that certificate is worth — and employers know it.
Three good pieces beat thirty mediocre ones. A portfolio is judged on the weakest piece in it, not the best.

No licence and no degree required
You are judged entirely on footage of you running something in front of an audience.

What people actually ask for
A reel — two to three minutes of you running a real function. This is the only thing that matters, and you can start building it from school events.
Client references. In corporate emceeing, personal recommendation is how most bookings happen.
Proof of language. Footage of you hosting in every language you claim. A client will not take that risk on your word.

Academic qualifications
A diploma / degree in Mass Communication, Broadcasting, Languages or Performing Arts. Check MQA accreditation.
Useful for voice training and structure, not as a qualification.

Training that genuinely pays off
Voice and breath training. Most presenters never train this, and it is an audible difference after two hours on stage.
Pronunciation. Names, titles and positions. Getting a name wrong at a corporate function is a mistake that gets remembered.
Improvisation. Theatre or improv classes train the thing you are actually paid for — what you do when the script fails.

Context to know
Broadcast and online content is regulated — MCMC for online, and stations have their own content guidelines. The presenter is responsible for what is said live.

Pros

Cons

Future & the AI era

AI can't stand on stage & read a room — live presence stays fully human.
AI helps script & research; the performance is you.

Step by step, and how long each takes

  1. SPM — and speak in front of peopleSPM
    No stream requirement.
    What genuinely trains you, and it is free: emceeing school functions, speech competitions, debate, drama club, assembly announcements.
    Why this is not a trivial activity: presenting is a skill that can only be built in front of real people. You cannot learn it from a book.
    Language is a career decision here, not a school subject. Bilingual presenters charge more than single-language presenters, consistently. If you can add a third language, do.
    Start recording yourself. You need footage to get hired, and a phone is already enough.
  2. A course — optional, and not what opens doors2–4 tahun
    A diploma / degree in Mass Communication, Broadcasting, Languages or Performing Arts. Check MQA accreditation.
    But honestly: nobody hires a presenter because of their degree. They hire because they have seen that person run something.
    What a course gives you: voice training, breath control, diction, and structured practice in front of a class.
    More useful: work as an emcee at real functions — small weddings, community events, campus events — even at low pay at first. Every function gives you footage.
  3. TV, corporate, or digital — three different careers分岔
    This is the most important decision on this page.
    TV and radio — most recognised, fixed rates, competitive, and the station decides who appears.
    Corporate — conferences, awards nights, product launches. Best paid, because a company is paying for certainty on a day that cannot go wrong.
    Digital — YouTube, podcasts, live streams, brand hosting. You own the audience, but you are also responsible for building it.
    Most successful presenters do all three, and use TV exposure to raise their corporate rate. That is the actual strategy, and it is worth understanding early.

Key SPM subjects

Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Inggeris

BM →English →

Questions students actually ask

Does TV presenting pay well?
Not as well as students assume — and corporate emceeing pays far more.
The real numbers:
TV host — a per-episode rate, and lower than people expect.
New corporate emcee — RM1,000–2,500 per function.
Established corporate emcee — RM3,000–8,000 per function.
Known bilingual corporate emcee — RM8,000–20,000 per function.
The reason for the gap: a TV station pays a fixed rate and has a queue of candidates. A company running a RM400,000 awards night is paying you to make sure the day does not go wrong.
The strategy that actually works: use TV or social media to become known, then sell that recognition to corporate clients. That is how most high-earning presenters in Malaysia are actually structured.
And one thing you can start now: language. A presenter who can run a function confidently in Malay and English charges more, and adding Mandarin opens a third market with few competitors.
Practice SPM BM →K1 papers + AI answers · 3 languages

Where to study — universities and total fees

University Course Total fees Duration Location
First City University CollegeDiploma · DIPLOMA IN MASS COMMUNICATIONRM 19,5652 YearsBandar Utama, Selangor
Han Chiang University College of CommunicationDiploma · Diploma in Mass CommunicationRM 26,3002 YearsGeorge Town, Penang
SEGi University & CollegesDiploma · Diploma in Mass CommunicationRM 28,1253 YearsKota Damansara / KL / Subang / Penang / Sarawak
University of CyberjayaDiploma · Diploma in Mass CommunicationRM 30,0002 yearsCyberjaya, Selangor
INTI International University & CollegesDiploma · Diploma in Mass CommunicationRM 34,4822 yearsNilai / Subang / Penang
Kolej MDIS MalaysiaDiploma · Diploma in Mass CommunicationRM 38,7002 years 5 monthsEduCity, Iskandar Puteri, Johor
Dasein Academy of ArtDiploma · DIPLOMA IN MASS COMMUNICATIONRM 45,3002 years and 4 monthsWangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur
University of CyberjayaDegree · Bachelor in Mass Communication (Hounours)RM 50,0003 yearsCyberjaya, Selangor
Sunway CollegeDiploma · Diploma in Performing ArtsRM 50,4502 yearsBandar Sunway, Selangor
First City University CollegeDegree · BA (HONOURS) MASS COMMUNICATIONRM 53,6803 YearsBandar Utama, Selangor
SEGi University & CollegesDegree · Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons)RM 55,7553 YearsKota Damansara / KL / Subang / Penang / Sarawak
SEGi University & CollegesDegree · Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons) – ODLRM 55,7553 YearsKota Damansara / KL / Subang / Penang / Sarawak
Sunway UniversityDiploma · Diploma in Performing ArtsRM 59,0002 Years (full-time)Bandar Sunway, Selangor
INTI International University & CollegesDegree · 3+0 BA (Hons) Mass Communication, University of Hertfordshire, UKRM 67,2783 YearsNilai / Subang / Penang
INTI International University & CollegesDegree · Bachelor of Mass Communication (Hons)RM 68,7863 YearsNilai / Subang / Penang
UCSI University / UCSI CollegeDegree · BA (HONS) MASS COMMUNICATIONRM 69,9503 YearsCheras, Kuala Lumpur
Taylor’s University / Taylor’s CollegeDegree · Bachelor of Performing Arts (Honours)RM 102,0843 yearSubang Jaya, Selangor
Taylor’s University / Taylor’s CollegeDegree · Bachelor of Mass Communication (Honours)RM 112,9923 yearSubang Jaya, Selangor
Taylor’s University / Taylor’s CollegeDegree · Bachelor of Mass Communication (Honours) (Digital Media Production)RM 112,9923 yearSubang Jaya, Selangor
University of Nottingham MalaysiaDegree · BA (Hons) in International Communications Studies with Performing ArtsRM 126,0003 YearsSemenyih, Selangor

Fees are a guide only and change every year. Confirm the current figure with the university before you decide.

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Sources

Figures and policy on this page are checked against these reports. Last reviewed 2026-09.

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