Television in Thailand
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In Thailand, television broadcasting started on 24 June, 1955 (in NTSC). Color telecasts (PAL, System B/G 625 lines) were started in 1967, and full-time color transmissions were launched in 1975. As of November 2020, there are currently 21 digital (DVB-T2) TV channels in Thailand.
Television providers
Subscription providers are available, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the program guide (EPG), video on demand (VOD), high-definition (HD), interactive television via the red button, and coverage across Thailand. Set-top boxes are generally used to receive these services. Households viewing TV from the internet are not tracked by the Thai government.
| Provider | Type of service | No. broadcast channels | VOD | HD | Red button | Still Operate? | Transmission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital terrestrial | Free-to-air | 20 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital terrestrial television |
| TrueVisions | Free and Pay TV | Around 200 (TV and radio) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital satellite, Cable television and IPTV |
| AIS Play | Free and Pay TV | Around 100 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | IPTV |
| GMM Z | Free (Previously include Pay TV) | Around 150 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital satellite and IPTV |
| PSI | Free (Previously include Pay TV) | Around 150 (C-band)/100 (KU-band) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital satellite |
| IPM | Free | Around 100 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital Satellite |
| Good TV | Free and Pay TV | Around 100 (Including 11 Paid Channels) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Digital Satellite |
Analog terrestrial television
This is currently the traditional way of receiving television in Thailand, however it has now largely been supplanted by digital providers. There are 6 channels; three of them are government public-owned by MCOT the 2 television channels terrestrial free-to-air Modernine TV and Channel 3; Channel 5 and BBTV Channel 7 are owned by Royal Thai Army; NBT and Thai PBS are fully government-owned. Analog terrestrial transmissions were scheduled to be switched off in phases as part of the digital switchover, which was expected to be completed in 2020 in line with ASEAN recommendations, however, the changeover has yet to come into effect.
Provincial television was discontinued in 1988, replaced by NBT, which has two hours of local programming in each of the provinces.
| Name | Network | Owner | Launch date | Channel (BKK Analog) | Channel (Digital) | Broadcasting area | Transmitted area | Broadcasting hours | Formerly known as | End Analog (UTC+07:00) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel 3 | Bangkok Entertainment Co.ltd | Bangkok Entertainment Co.ltd MCOT |
26 March 1970 | 3 (VHF) 32 (UHF) |
33 (HDTV)[1] | Bangkok | Bangkok | 24-hours | 26 March 2020 (00:01)[2][3] | |
| Channel 5 | Royal Thai Army Radio and Television | Royal Thai Army | 25 January 1958 | 5 (VHF) | 5 (HDTV) | Bangkok | Bangkok | 5:00 am – 1:00 am (Next Day) | HSATV (Channel 7) | 21 June 2018 (09:29)[4] |
| Channel 7 | Bangkok Broadcasting and Television Company Limited (BBTV) | Bangkok Broadcasting and Television Company Limited (BBTV) Royal Thai Army |
27 November 1967 | 7 (VHF) | 35 (HDTV) | Bangkok | Bangkok | 24-hours | 17 June 2018 (00:00)[5] | |
| Modernine TV | MCOT | MCOT | 24 June 1955 | 9 (VHF) | 30 (HDTV) | Bangkok | Bangkok | 24-hours | TTV Channel 4, TTV Channel 9, MCOT Channel 9 and Modernine TV | 16 July 2018 (18:30)[6] |
| NBT | NBT | The Government Public Relations Department of the Prime Minister's Office | 11 July 1988 | 11 (VHF) | 2 (HDTV) | Bangkok | Bangkok | 4:00 am - Midnight (End of day) | TVT 11 or TV (Channel) 11 | 16 July 2018 (00:00)[7] |
| Thai PBS | Thai PBS | Thai Public Broadcasting Service | 1 July 1996 | 29 (UHF) | 3 (HDTV) | Bangkok | Bangkok | 5:00 am – 1:00 am (Next Day) | ITV, TITV, TPBS, TV Thai | 16 June 2018 (00:00)[8][9][10] |
Digital terrestrial television
In 2005, the Ministry of Information announced their plan to digitalize nationwide free-to-air TV broadcasts led by MCOT. Trial broadcasts were undertaken, involving one thousand households in Bangkok from December 2000 till May 2001. In December 2013, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) set up series of auction for DTTV. Four types of licenses are offered: High-Def. channel license, Standard-Def. channel license, News channel license and Youth/Family channel license. All the major operators and content owners in the industry won the bid for new licenses e.g. BEC World, Bangkok Broadcasting and TV, GMM Grammy, ThaiRath Newspaper, Nation Multimedia Group, True Visions etc. According to the license condition, DTTV services launched since April 2014.
Bangkok free-to-air stations include:
Cable television
All national cable TVs in Thailand must accept by MCOT, The first provider is International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in 1989, next one is Thai Sky TV in 1991 (but off-air in 1997). Universal TV cable network (UTV) is the third provider in 1993. But after Asian financial crisis, UTV merged with IBC in 1998, changed its name to United Broadcasting Corporation or UBC (TrueVisions in present) and became a monopoly provider.[citation needed]
IP television (IPTV)
In contrast to Internet TV, IPTV refers to services operated and controlled by a single company, who may also control the 'Final Mile' to the consumers' premises.
Mobile television
True Move provide mobile television services for reception on third generation mobile phones. They consist of a mixture of regular channels as well as made for mobile channels with looped content. True Move H TV now offers more than 20 channels to True-H 3G subscribers who own compatible mobile phones. Yet, True is expected to roll out broadcast mobile TV services based on DVB-H in the near future.
Internet television
Television received via the Internet may be free, subscription or pay-per-view, multicast, unicast, or peer-to-peer, streamed or downloaded, and use a variety of distribution technologies. Playback is normally via a computer and broadband Internet connection, although digital media receivers or media centre computers can be used for playback on televisions, such as a computer equipped with Windows Media Center.
Popularity of terrestrial TV stations
The audience share achieved by each terrestrial channel in Thailand is shown in the first table below. The second table shows the share each channel receives of total TV advertising spending. Channel 7 is both the most popular and most commercially successful station with just under 50% of the total audience followed by Channel 3 at just under 30%. The other terrestrial stations share the remaining 20% of the TV audience between them.[11]
Audience Share:[11]
| TV Station (Operator) | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 1H[12] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel 7 | 42.4 | 41.3 | 42.0 | 44.7 | 45.4 | 43.8 | 47.5 |
| Channel 3 | 24.5 | 25.6 | 29.5 | 26.8 | 27.7 | 29.5 | 29.0 |
| Channel 5 | 8.1 | 7.3 | 6.7 | 7.6 | 8.6 | 8.0 | 6.9 |
| Modernine TV | 10.3 | 10.2 | 9.2 | 9.6 | 9.9 | 9.7 | 9.2 |
| NBT | 2.9 | 3.0 | 2.4 | 4.9 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 2.4 |
| Thai PBS (Values shown for 2005 - 2007 is for iTV and TITV) | 11.8 | 12.6 | 10.2 | 6.1 | 4.9 | 5.6 | 5.0 |
Market Share - Share of total TV advertising spending:[11]
| TV Station (Operator) | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 1H[12] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel 7 | 28.0 | 27.4 | 27.7 | 31.0 | 28.0 | 31.0 | 31.7 |
| Channel 3 | 20.8 | 22.2 | 22.5 | 28.0 | 28.0 | 27.0 | 27.0 |
| Channel 5 | 16.5 | 16.0 | 15.9 | 20.0 | 20.0 | 18.0 | 17.7 |
| Modernine TV | 13.9 | 14.4 | 14.5 | 17.0 | 19.0 | 20.0 | 20.0 |
| NBT | 2.3 | 2.8 | 2.6 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.6 |
| Thai PBS | 18.5 | 17.3 | 16.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Audience Share (2022):
| Position | Channel | Share of total viewing (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Channel 7 | 15.6 |
| 2 | Channel 3 | 10.8 |
| 3 | Mono 29 | 9.1 |
| 4 | Workpoint TV | 6.5 |
| 5 | One 31 | 6.3 |
| 6 | Thairath TV | 6.0 |
| 7 | Amarin TV | 5.3 |
| 8 | Channel 8 | 3.8 |
| 9 | PPTV 36 | 2.5 |
| 10 | True4U | 1.9 |
| 11 | MCOT | 1.8 |
| 12 | GMM 25 | 1.6 |
| 13 | TV 5 | 1.5 |
| 14 | Thai PBS | 1.4 |
| 15 | NBT | 0.8 |
| 16 | TNN16 | 0.6 |
See also
References
- ^ Note - Digital TV Station, but owner by BEC Multimedia Company Limited and Launch date on 25 April 2014 on 16:00 (Thailand Standard Time)
- ^ “26 มี.ค. 63” ดีเดย์ช่อง 3 ยุติอนาล็อก พร้อมเผยแผน Next Move 2020 posted by Jenpasit Puprasert Yarmfaojor page
- ^ Last TV Analog in Thailand 🇹🇭 posted by bundit konroo YouTube page
- ^ Video of Channel 5 analogue switchoff posted by the Broadcast.Engineering.NBTC Facebook page
- ^ ช่อง 7 ยุติการออกอากาศระบบแอนะล็อก posted by JRK YT YouTube page
- ^ ช่อง MCOT ยุติทีวีอนาล็อก 16/7/2561 posted by DorRorSor YouTube page
- ^ ช่อง NBT ยุติทีวีอนาล็อก 16/7/2561 posted by DorRorSor YouTube page
- ^ ThaiPBS (Analog) - Technical Difficulties (15th June 2018) posted by Watty Tyanmy YouTube page
- ^ ETC - การเปิดเครื่องส่งแอนะล็อกอีกครั้ง 2:00 หลังจากที่ปิดไปเมื่อ 0:00 16 มิถุนายน 2561 posted by ezybzy YouTube page
- ^ Video of Thai PBS analogue switchoff posted by the Broadcast.Engineering.NBTC Facebook page
- ^ a b c "Analyst Briefing Presentation" (PDF). MCOT. 2 March 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ a b "Analyst Briefing 2Q" (PDF). MCOT. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
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