bangkok blue

O.K Peeps time to start badgering the FA again to see if they are true to their word about striking a deal before the F.A cup 4th round...

E-mail [email protected]

or, [email protected]

Both of them are in charge of broadcasting.... Fingers crossed, although I'm not holding my breath!

Send by EMS and it won't get lost

Think you pay the money to a bank and they issue you with a bankers draft, give them a call to check who to make it payable to and if you need to send your old passport, but I think you do. Consulate number053263015

Fees of 3 months' visas slashed

The Council of Economic Ministers ruled to slash fees for all kinds of visas for foreingers visiting the country for three months, effective on January 20.

Deputy Spokesman of Prime Minister's Office Mr. Puttipong Punnakan (พุทธิพงษ์ ปุณณกันต์) revealed that a meeting of the Council of Economic Ministers on Wednesday (January 14) consented to slash fees for all kinds of visas for foreigners visiting the country for three months, effective on January 20.

Regarding damages from recent closure of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports following blockade of People's Alliance for Democracy, the meeting instructed Ministry of Foreign Affairs to collect details of damages to be presented to the Cabinet's meeting on January 20.

Meanwhile, the meeting would reconsider later suggestion by tourism business entrepreneurs who asked the government to provide soft loans for them and reduce taxes on buildings, hotels and accommodation rooms.

Besides, the economic ministers also instructed government agencies to host seminars and studying activities to the country place of foreign countries. They also instructed the National Statistical Office and the National Economic and Social Development Board to collect information and fees relating to tourism, such as parking fees of aircrafts, in order to be presented to the Cabinet to consider to reduce fees.

In addition, the meeting instructed Ministry of Transport to seek measures to prevent airports' closure from recurring. Ministry of Tourism and Sports was instructed to negotiate for cooperation with airliners to reduce ticket fares to help turning around local tourism.

Source: National News Bureau of Thailand - 15 January 2009

This is interesting..... make boarder runs 15days only, then announce a free for all for visa fees.

I have to apply for a double tourist visa in Laos on 20th.... Maybe I'll be getting this for free if the above quote is accurate??.... then again TIT!

Hi, Anyone booked anything to England for around May time? One company quoted me 49k with some turkish airline via Istanbul, never paid that much hoping to pay 30-35k, air asia are doing some cheap deals via KL, but I may have to book last minute can anyone recommend and decent Travel agencies please.

Any ideas?

Phoned consulate here, don't even need to go in, download from from embassy website, send to F.C.O Bangkok. Standard passport 6,188 + 300bht to send back to you, allow for 3 weeks. Photos should be aprx 3'' x 2''.

says on their website 6,188 bht for the standard passport! Where do they get 9000bht from!?

Is it possible to obtain a new passport at the consulate in Chiangmai? Surely I don't have to go to BKK to do this?

Anyone know how much? Where the consulate is and the process time?

Thanks

A reply from True...

Dear Mr. Clive:

We apologize to inform you that FA Cup will not be showing on TrueVisions channels to the time being.

However, we would also like to ensure you that the related party has taken an action to secure the rights back again.

So TRUE sport don't want it. This statement from them may also mean ESPN won't be showing it either. So this seems to leave Thai terristrial channels only.

At least it does some that the complaints are being taken seriously. Think we should all badger the F.A about a week prior to F.A cup 4th round date as there are some juicy ties Manyoo Vs Spurs, the scouse derby and hopefully Watford Vs the mighty LCFC!

Not sure this booze ban has much to do with it really, if that was the case then Channel 7 would not be showing the carling cup, from the reply that stuart turner gave it seems as though it's a free market and any number of terriestrial or cable operators could get the rights to all or some games, True, ESPN Ch3 , Ch7 even NBT or WE-TV could bid... I suspect Thai T.V may well get it unless ESPN throw their hat back into the ring or TRUEsport decide to bid.

Hmmm.... It's an idea zodiac but think TRUE is expensive enough as it is.... Hopefully though we have started the ball moving.

Although I can speak Thai a bit my writing of it is non-existent. Don't think Thais are the most pro-active of people either when it comes to matters such as this... "No F.A Cup Mai pen rai, anyone for a game of Teakor!?"

Just had a reply from True, think they have missed our main point and this guy refers more to the scheduling of the football instead of the issue on broadcasting rights and what will be done to secure them....

Dear Mr. Clive:

The purpose of this is to convey to you our sincere apologies for any

inconvenience you may have experienced in our service and thank you very much

for your suggestion & comment, TrueVisions has acknowledged your message and

would very much like to clarify you that usually, there are several things and

conditions of broadcasting in programs from the host channel such as there are

majority interests and program license as you understood very well.

We would also like to clarify more that Program schedules for example, Premier

Leagues, Scottish, French and Dutch League are usually received from the channel

owners 2 months in advance, but they can be changed just a few minutes before

the game start. As this event has been broadcasted live, we are unable to change

or customize it in time even on our Electronic Program Guide. As soon as

TrueVisions is notified by program owners, a message will be shown as still

slide before show time and during breaks. For urgent or important programs,

there will be additional streamer messages at the bottom of your TV screen.

This message will be definitely forwarded to the related party for further

consideration and action where appropriate.

We are so grateful for your trust in our service and support us all time. Write

us again whenever we can be of further help to you. Please contact us at

02-7252525 or [email protected]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

02-7252525--->Press 9 for English--->Press 8 for Platinum and Gold

service---> Enter subscriber number ….followed by(#)--->Press 1 to

submit---> press number 1 for Billing and Payment, 2 for Technical support,

or 3 for General Information…, your line will be transferred to the

representative shortly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Information

We have been implementing the Automated System lately; this is to broaden the

convenient choices for you by just recording your phone number that you always

use for example, mobile phone number, home fixed line number, except the office

number that has extension number. You can give us at 4 numbers maximum. We will

keep all these numbers in our systematic record. When you use one of them

contact us, the system will retrieve your account automatically. We believe this

will be finished by the beginning of 2009. So, please give us your phone

numbers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Best regards,

Mr. Wichian Chompoonog

Officer - TrueVisions Care

Support & Non-Voice Management

Tel+66(0) 2725-2525

Fax+66(0) 2725-2500

Email:[email protected]

Just to be sure that he has all the information at hand to sort out this sorry mess I replied and passed on the following.

Dear Mr, Chompoonog,

Thank you for your reply, but this still leaves my main question unanswered. The football viewing public of Thailand are not concerned about the electronic programme notification guide, but are more concerned as to what are TruevisionsTV going to do about securing the rights to show the FA Cup this season?

It is being shown in every other country within Asia Via ESPN and Star Sports.

I am aware that the FA of England had signed a contract with a media agency called

M-league, however M-League have now cancelled the contract and no longer hold the distribution rights for the F.A Cup in Thailand.

I have contacted the Head of broadcasting for the F.A in England Mr Stuart Turner already. Here is his reply, below, from my e-mail to him.

Dear Mr Nagington

Thank you for your emails of this morning.

We are pleased that The FA Cup is in such demand in Thailand and we have enjoyed a long relationship with both ESPN Star Sports and BBTV in the region for a number of years. We are however extremely disappointed not to be able to bring FA Cup fans the competition thus far this year. We are working hard to remedy this situation for the remainder of this season however. Please allow me to explain how this situation has arisen.

The simple fact is that the agreement that The FA signed in good faith in Novemeber 2007 has been reneged upon by the licensee for Thailand leaving The FA to re-open a number of direct negotiations with both cable and terrestrial broadcasters in the territory. These negotiations, set as they are against a backdrop of financial and political meltdown in Thailand, have not been easy, but I sense we are near to conclusion. For the record, the agency you reference does not hold the rights but when we appoint any agency, we would ensure that no broadcasters is "held to ransom" as you suggest. It would not be in the interest of any agency paying a guaranteed amount to The FA so to do.

We will continue to try and strike a firm deal before the FA Cup Fourth Round but pleased be advised of our best intentions in this regard.

Your sisncerely

Stuart Turner

Head of Broadcast

holding anyone ot ransom as you suggest

I suggest that in light of this information the broadcasting team for Truevisions liase with Mr. Turner at the F.A in England and arrange a suitable rights package for both parties so your customers receive value for their subscription fee.

Mr Stuart Turner can be contacted at [email protected]

Yours Faithfully

Given True all the info they need now to sort it should they want to, judging by the FA's response it's a free market so the ball is in their court as to whether they will secure the rights for it's suffering, paying customers... fingers crossed.

received a similar reply from Mr. Stuart Turner today..... Think he was a tad pissed off

Dear Mr Nagington

Thank you for your emails of this morning.

We are pleased that The FA Cup is in such demand in Thailand and we have enjoyed a long relationship with both ESPN Star Sports and BBTV in the region for a number of years. We are however extremely disappointed not to be able to bring FA Cup fans the competition thus far this year. We are working hard to remedy this situation for the remainder of this season however. Please allow me to explain how this situation has arisen.

The simple fact is that the agreement that The FA signed in good faith in Novemeber 2007 has been reneged upon by the licensee for Thailand leaving The FA to re-open a number of direct negotiations with both cable and terrestrial broadcasters in the territory. These negotiations, set as they are against a backdrop of financial and political meltdown in Thailand, have not been easy, but I sense we are near to conclusion. For the record, the agency you reference does not hold the rights but when we appoint any agency, we would ensure that no broadcasters is "held to ransom" as you suggest. It would not be in the interest of any agency paying a guaranteed amount to The FA so to do.

We will continue to try and strike a firm deal before the FA Cup Fourth Round but pleased be advised of our best intentions in this regard.

Your sisncerely

Stuart Turner

Head of Broadcast

holding anyone ot ransom as you suggest

My Reply......

Dear Mr. Turner,

Thank you for your very prompt reply. I feel I must apologise for the way you may have interpreted my previous e-mail, I did not mean to cause any offence. I did not mean to refer to you, nor the F.A for holding T.V companies to ransom with regards to the F.A Cup broadcasting rights in Thailand. I was more referring to how M-League may have conducted themselves in relation to this issue.

myself, many other ex-pats and Thai football fans over here will feel very much more at ease that this situation is trying to be dealt with and I am personally very grateful for the time you are taking to resolve this issue.

If you could please inform me on any positive developments prior to the 4th round. The ex-pat community of Thailand and the people of Thailand would be very much in debt to you and you will be forever welcome to an all expenses paid tour of Nana Plaza and Soi cowboy on behalf of all Thaivisa.com football fans should you ever choose to visit Bangkok

All the best

Clive

will keep you all posted

O.K here's the latest....

Had a reply from True.... Could well be a fob off, but rest assured I will get a definate answer on this before 4th round date.

Dear Mr. Clive:

Once we have a good answer from Sport Department, we will come back to you.

We are so grateful for your trust in our service and support us all time. Write us again whenever we can be of further help to you. Please contact us at 02-7252525 or [email protected]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Customer Information

We have been implementing the Automated System lately; this is to broaden the convenient choices for you by just recording your phone number that you always use for example, mobile phone number, home fixed line number, except the office number that has extension number. You can give us at 4 numbers maximum. We will keep all these numbers in our systematic record. When you use one of them contact us, the system will retrieve your account automatically. We believe this will be finished by the beginning of 2009. So, please give us your phone numbers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wishing you a happy Christmas and happy New Year.

Best regards,

Mr. Wichian Chompoonog

Officer - TrueVisions Care

Support & Non-Voice Management

Tel+66(0) 2725-2525

Fax+66(0) 2725-2500

Email:[email protected]

As advised from another member on here have e-mailed the following people at the F.A

[email protected]

[email protected]

Had an out of office auto reply from her so forwarded the mail to [email protected]

I'm guessing the head of boradcasting stuart turner's e-mail is: [email protected]

You could read his official statement at the joy of M-League showing the footy in Thailand here....

http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/NewsFromTheFA/P...tement_Asia.htm

Get as many people as you know to contact the F.A I'm quite sure when they realise that M-League have made a pigs ear of distributing these matches then something will happen.

Will keep you posted on events....

Seems the F.A have a lot to answer for.... Take a look at the last paragraph.

The Football Association (FA) has announced that ESPN Star Sports, IMG and M-League will have exclusive rights to broadcast FA Cup and England matches within Asia for the 2008-2012 period.

The majority of rights within Asia have been acquired by ESPN Star Sports, The FA's current partner within the region. IMG has acquired rights for Japan and the Indian sub-continent with M-League acquiring all broadcast rights for Thailand.

The Asia partnerships together represent the largest regional market in The FA's new range of deals for its international broadcast rights, the total of which is over $300 million, a 275% increase on the current four-year $ 80 million deals.

FA Group Commercial Director, Jonathan Hill said, "We are delighted that we have renewed our relationship with ESPN Star Sports in what was an intensely competitive market and we look forward to continuing to grow our brands in Asia with ESS's significant marketing support and leverage."

FA Head of Broadcast, Stuart Turner added, "We are pleased to be continuing our relationship with IMG who have a very strong presence in Japan and the sub-continent and we are thrilled to have a new agency partner in M-League who are committed to maximising exposure of the property in the key market of Thailand."

I have tried to email Stuart Turner at the FA, his e-mail is not disclosed on the FA's website but have took a stab in the dark at [email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

See if I get a reply...

I will be calling the F.A's customer relations dept in the next few days to follow up my e-mail and see what's being done. Will let you know.

Here is an open letter I have sent to TRUE, The Bangkok post and the F.A

I am writing from Chiangmai, Thailand as a very frustrated football fan.

Last night the F.A Cup was not shown in this country, myself and many other Thai football fans were denied watching the exciting opening matches which pitch the giants and minnows together.

From my research I have found that ESPN hold the broadcasting rights for Asia, however this excludes Thailand. A media company called M-League apparently own the rights for Thailand but have failed to distribute them in the correct manner. I also believe TRUE have not lived up to their statement as "the king of soccer" by failing to negotiate a deal to show these matches.

I find it astounding that the FA of England would sell the broadcasting rights to a company that makes Thai broadcasters pay too much for these games thus depriving football fans in Thailand of this great competition. I also find it equally astounding that the price of subscribing to gold and platinum packages in order to watch the football does not generate enough income for TRUEVISIONS to buy the rights to this competition.

I urge the F.A of England to investigate this company (M-League) and find out how they choose to distribute these rights to the people of Thailand and why they were allowed to gain the rights if they had no intention of letting the public access these matches. I also urge TRUE to serve their customers in the correct manner for the price we have to pay to watch the football here.

I await a reply from TRUE, although having experienced their dreadful customer service once too many I am not holding my breath!

Yours Faithfully .......

You can contact true @ [email protected] Bangkok post: [email protected]

The FA have an online contact facility. http://www.thefa.com/feedback/

You have to register in order to e-mail, stupid I know but it only takes a few mins....

What is going on is completely unacceptable. Not sure if It's True, M-League, The F.A or all of them. But as paying customers to UBC we deserve answers.

At the very minimum as subscribers we should have been informed about the change in rights issue and the FA cup would no longer be available.

If all else fails I suggest we all don our football shirts for our teams and stage a protest outside TRUE tower, not allowing the workers to leave until some deal is sorted.

Just heard a story that a friend of a friend was refused a T.V as his passport only had 2 pages left, got me a little bit worried as after enter Laos I may only have 3, possibly 2 pages left myself. Is there a limit on the ammount pages a consulate wants you to have in order for them to issue the visa?

Hi,

I received a non Imm B from Hanoi back in October, very nice young chap who works in there. Filled out my application wrong and he just said scribble it out and write this, that and this.... I gave him my current W.P as the company I worked for hadn't had time to get my extension of stay sorted as their docs weren't in order (hence the reason I had to get a new B visa). He didn't ask for this though I just offered it him.

I'm sure he will be aware of the fact that you need a non Imm B to obtain a new W.P as long as you show an offer of work letter and relevent comp docs asking to give you the visa to obtain a W.P can't see any problem...

Good luck.

Am I right in saying that this does not effect obtaining the initial visa in a neighboruing country? I'm going to the embassy in Vietnam soon to get a non Imm B....

If I can't extend the visa within Thailand I will go home to the UK and obtain a 1yr multiple B from Hull.

What I'm asking is do the new rules effect obtaining the initial visa, or just extending your stay at immigration within the Kingdom?

This will possibly cause short term problems for farrang here awaiting W.P and papers to get an official Non B or O visa, luckily I'm ok for now. From what I gather it's just the boarder hop visa runs that this effects. But if I end my employment here I may go to Laos and get another double entry tourist visa (6mths) as before you get 60days, then go immigration to get a 30day extension. Will this still be the case??? Or after your initial 60days on a tourist visa you will just get 15days??? anyone know?

Noticed several England matches and the early FA cup rounds have been shown on Star but not in Thailand!!!! Anyone know what's going on?

Will be an absolute atrosity if the powers that be at TRUE don't sort something out to show this historic competition.

Yes but if the army decide not to carry out the government's order of clearing The PAD out of the airports in BKK for risk of causing confrontations and violence, this is a clear vote of no confidence in the current set up. Surely then, the only other option available to them is to overthrow the current leaders!?

This decision could have brought a bigger threat to Chiangmai.... Just hope when I'm out and about tonight I don't see army tanks rolling past warm up!

Anyone got any ideas as to who will show this Wednesday night? Not on Star sports here.... Maybe Thai TV 3 or 7, maybe True sport?

Rose cafe.... Rachamanka road I think, owned by a German guy.... has a sign outside saying "Second best pizza in Chiangmai"

Walk about 400m down Ratchamanka road, opposite the U-turn just before Johns place.

Go down Ratchamanka, past the internet cafe on the right, go past Tiger pub on the left and it's on the corner of the first crossroads.

If you come out the soi of Smile guest house and turn right you can't miss it.

American breakfast, German breakfast and the best British breakfast I've found in Chiangmai. British, german and american sausages all available. Good bacon and baked beans or hash browns, 2 cups of tea or coffee plus a small OJ for 120bht.