Cambodia Gets Satellite Tv

[george]

Cambodia gets satellite tv

Shin Satellite (ShinSat) subsidiary Cambodian DTV Network (CDN) and National Television of Kampuchea yesterday launched Cambodia's first satellite television service, serving mainly upcountry viewers.

The service, called Techo-DTV, is the first satellite-network service providing direct-to-home (DTH) television programming to each household in the kingdom. After buying the US$75 (Bt2,400) DTV set, viewers can watch all local Khmer channels for free. The service includes some foreign channels, and customers can subscribe to local pay TV in the near future.

ShinSat said in a statement yesterday that two-thirds of the country's 3 million households still did not have a television set.

"The key objective … is to build a nationwide information infrastructure that benefits all Cambodians, in accordance with government policy to develop and educate its citizens evenly," said CDN general manager Nuthapong Temsiripong.

"The Techo-DTV service will be not only focused on providing the existing Khmer channels, but also equipped with the potential capability to develop new programmes for long-distance education to rural areas and specifically benefit the promotion of Khmer culture and the tourism industry as our contribution to the country."

The Cambodian DTV Network was established this year as part of an expansion by ShinSat, which has been operated DTH services since 1994.

-- The Nation, Thailand 2008-04-04