Thai Tv Channels

[dave111223]

I don't often watch the Thai TV channels, but last night i had to watch channel 7 in order to see the England Football game.

I found it very odd that even though their online TV schedule said that at 1:30 am would be the England football match, when i tuned in at 1:30 (i know it was exactly 1:30am as another channel had nothing but a blank clock screen up) it was actually some random music video playing?

The music video continued to play for another 3 or 4 minutes, after which they switched to the football, which had already started 1 minute ago?

Why do they run programming over into eachother, the music video was not a live event, so surely they must have known the runtime, and have seen that it did not fit into the alotted time space. Is this just incompetence, is there some kind of purpose to doing this?

Also during the football game they would minimize the game into a tiny PIP and play and ad in the background. Yet during half time they did not show one single ad, instead they just left the picture of the empty football pitch on for about 10 minutes.

Why do they do this? Once again is it just incompetence?

[KhunMarco]

heh, that's nothing. Anyone ever seen the channel's Dvd player crashing and the tech-guy spending 15 minutes clicking everywhere trying to figure out how to restart the movie? Priceless

Edited March 25, 2007 by KhunMarco

[dgoz]

I like the highly professional ads from that highly professional organization called Sophon Cable TV.

In their ad they state that they are "Quickly for Installation".

They also have a problem with changing DVDs half way through the movie. Sometimes the "technician" has to restart the computer. It's funny to hear the Windows start up music blaring out of the TV. It's not so funny when it's a late night movie and he's fallen asleep, leaving you to watch a blue sceen and to imagine what might of happened in the second half of the movie.

[Mobi]

I assume you weren't around when the World Cup was on and they proudly announced that every game would be broadcast live - free to - air without ads. And what happened? The first week or so, we were lucky to get the second half of many games as they clashed with the news. And ads (sponsors logos) gradually creeped across the screen as the tournament progressed, in complete contravention of their undertakings to FIFA.

Many live matches are interrupted by ads throughout the play, which is something I've never seen anywhere else.

Well, TIT. What else do you expect? Professionalism?

[dominique355]

I experience a similar annoying scheme on UBS, oops, Truevisions during transmission of international sports events. Take Formula 1 races on Start-Sport. Every 10 minutes they interrupt the transmission only to show us a red screen informing us the transmission will resume instantly.

My guess is that during these intermissions the satellite broadcasts advertising, but the advertisers did not include (pay for) Thailand. Sometimes the technician seems to be on the loo and we can enjoy Johnny Walker ads with fantastic aircraft carrier landings

But it annoys me having to pay for viewing commercials on TV.

Even worse are the so-called factual entertainment channels such as Discovery, History Channel etc. Not only is about 75% of the time for re-runs, but the show is interrupted every 5 minutes for the oh so informative announcement: "Next hon the History Channel", followed by the title of the next show. I tried to interest my kids for some documentary about history, but this policy is killing their attention span in no time. After 15 min they simply walk away bored.

[Mobi]

I experience a similar annoying scheme on UBS, oops, Truevisions during transmission of international sports events. Take Formula 1 races on Start-Sport. Every 10 minutes they interrupt the transmission only to show us a red screen informing us the transmission will resume instantly.

My guess is that during these intermissions the satellite broadcasts advertising, but the advertisers did not include (pay for) Thailand. Sometimes the technician seems to be on the loo and we can enjoy Johnny Walker ads with fantastic aircraft carrier landings

But it annoys me having to pay for viewing commercials on TV.

Even worse are the so-called factual entertainment channels such as Discovery, History Channel etc. Not only is about 75% of the time for re-runs, but the show is interrupted every 5 minutes for the oh so informative announcement: "Next hon the History Channel", followed by the title of the next show. I tried to interest my kids for some documentary about history, but this policy is killing their attention span in no time. After 15 min they simply walk away bored.

I was much worse when they blanked out ALL the ads and we had to suffer blank screens and the same mind numbing music every ten minutes on every channel. At least we get the ads now - or most of them, so a bit of variety while awaiting resumption of the programme. Nothing can be done as all the programmes are relayed from elsewhere in the region where they have different arrangements with subscribers and place ads every ten minutes. If we had transmissions exclusive to Thailand it would be a different story - but pigs might fly.

One solution is to get a DVD recorder and record the stuff for your kids (and you). You can then fast fwd through the ads. It works well, and is the only way I will watch Star World.

[lopburi3]

There have never been time management on Thai TV. Programs are scheduled and if there is overrun so be it. The listed time will normally be the earliest it will be on but normally it will be somewhat later (and if there is a rare live event/news that can be an hour or more late).

What advertiser would want his ads shown during halftime when nobody is paying attention.

When they first started the ads/action together the made the ad small and it was not bad - but how do you follow a 1/4 size football game that they do now? But who can change a monopoly?

[dominique355]

One solution is to get a DVD recorder and record the stuff for your kids (and you). You can then fast fwd through the ads. It works well, and is the only way I will watch Star World.

Good idea, MobiD'Ark. I read some time ago that there is a device, which can sort out commercials and interrupt the recording during this time. I also heard that some big company sued the manufacturer.

There is a LG Plasma TV with built-in HD for recording any show. Back in Europe, I had a satellite receiver with built-in HD and an EPG, which made it easy to program a recording...

[dave111223]

What advertiser would want his ads shown during halftime when nobody is paying attention.

Are you serious?

So you are saying that no advertisers ever pay for ads during halftimes? (Do you ever watch sporting events?)

[Mobi]

Just to show my age : In the old, really old days, before cable, before satellite TV, before the Chinese drama invasion and even before the Thai Drama invasion (yes there was such an era), after the news on most nights channel 3 used to broadcast an American movie or drama series. This was dubbed in Thai, but you could receive the original soundtrack on FM radio.

The problem was, that even though the movies were scheduled for 9.30 pm. the actual starting time could be anything from 10.00 - 11.30 p.m. - depending on how long the news over-ran. Then there was the problem of whether the engineer who switched to the English sound track on radio was awake or not. Most nights you could wait anything from 10 minutes to an hour before he decided to switch it on. Sometimes he never switched it on at all. Then there were the many occasions when the sound track was way out of sync with the TV and became impossible to watch.

The net result of all this, was if you were patient enough, you might just get to watch most of a movie, maybe once a week.

And we couldn't go out because there was a midnight curfew.

You guys don't know how lucky you are

Edited March 25, 2007 by Mobi D'Ark

[Mobi]

One solution is to get a DVD recorder and record the stuff for your kids (and you). You can then fast fwd through the ads. It works well, and is the only way I will watch Star World.

Good idea, MobiD'Ark. I read some time ago that there is a device, which can sort out commercials and interrupt the recording during this time. I also heard that some big company sued the manufacturer.

There is a LG Plasma TV with built-in HD for recording any show. Back in Europe, I had a satellite receiver with built-in HD and an EPG, which made it easy to program a recording...

I bought a Pioneer DVD recorder some time ago and record onto DVD discs. The recorders with the built in hard drives are much more expensive. I find the discs excellent quality and have never let me down. I even occasionally record movies off the TV for later watching, but the recorders really come into their own for skipping through commercials and channel breaks.

[lopburi3]

What advertiser would want his ads shown during halftime when nobody is paying attention.

Are you serious?

So you are saying that no advertisers ever pay for ads during halftimes? (Do you ever watch sporting events?)

Yes I am serious and I am talking Thailand where the sponsors rule. The old system was to cut to ad and just leave the game behind. Small screen it a giant leap forward in that regard.

And when I do watch football I do not watch halftime.

[wiki256]

Even worse, they put on ads for too long and switched back after there was scoring.

...well, at least they did some replays.