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Background: Food advertising on television (TV) is well known to influence children’s purchasing requests and models negative food habits in Western countries. Advertising of unhealthy foods is a contributor to the obesogenic environment that is a key driver of rising rates of childhood obesity. Children in developing countries are more at risk of being targeted by such advertising, as there is a huge potential for market growth of unhealthy foods concomitant with poor regulatory infrastructure. Further, in developing countries with multi-ethnic societies, information is scarce on the nature of TV advertising targeting children. Objectives: To measure exposure and power of TV food marketing to children on popular multi-ethnic TV stations in Malaysia. Design: Ethnic-specific popular TV channels were identified using industry data. TV transmissions were recorded for each channel from November 2012 to August 2013 (16 hr/day) for randomly selected weekdays and weekend days during normal days and repeated during school holidays (n=88 days). Coded food/beverage advertisements were grouped into core (healthy), non-core (non-healthy), or miscellaneous (unclassified) food categories. Peak viewing time (PVT) and persuasive marketing techniques were identified. Results: Non-core foods were predominant in TV food advertising, and rates were greater during school holidays compared to normal days (3.51 vs 1.93 food ads/hr/channel, p<0.001). During normal days’ PVT, the ratio of non-core to core food advertising was higher (3.25 food ads/hr/channel), and this more than trebled during school holidays to 10.25 food ads/hr/channel. Popular channels for Indian children had the lowest rate of food advertising relative to other ethnic groups. However, sugary drinks remained a popular non-core product advertised across all broadcast periods and channels. Notably, promotional characters doubled for non-core foods during school holidays compared to normal days (1.91 vs 0.93 food ads/hr/cha