True : Thai V Farang Subscribers ?

[longman15]

Just an observation on the following that got me wondering :

Euro 2008 footie is on at the moment in my home via my True - UBC Satellite ( Platinum ) subscription, though only on two of the local / Thai channels - without a a choice of any English commentary !?

I know the Thai channels concerned would have bought the exclusive ' live ' rights for Thailand so no chance of an ESPN etc. option.

I also vaguely remember when they bought the rights for and screened the World Cup a couple of years ago, they came under criticism for the same thing and commented something along the lines of - " we paid a lot of money already and it's a Thai channel for Thai people. "

So it's a business they have to ( or should ) make sense of financially, but also they should consider the overall viewing needs and requirements for the majority of their viewers / subscribers, be it Thai or Farang.

With their comment of " Thai channel ... Thai people etc "

I was just wondering overall as to how many UBC / True Thai subscribers there are percentage wise and how many Farang ?

Take away the fact quite a few subscriptions are in the Wife's / G.F. name for convenience etc. ( mine included ) - so what then is the actual ratio of Thai v Farang viewers / subscribers ?

Anyone know or want to hazard a guess ?

I know True won't give a **** either way, I'm just curious as to what it is.

[cophen]

Probably about the same proportion as there are Thai subscribers to Sky here in the UK. The main difference is that the Thais that I know here in the UK don't moan about the fact that there's no Thai commentary on Sky. They accept the fact that they're in an English speaking nation and expect English to be used on the TV.

[Jimjim]

I think there are a lot of foreign subscribers but the majority is certainly Thai. I've read before the percentage that True claimed but sorry, I forgot.

I don't think you can compare Thais not getting Thai language in England to foreigners getting English language TV in Thailand. Sorry, but Thai is not an accepted international language while English is definitely the main international language. So I understand the complaint.

You're right that Thai channels bought the rights but if you have satellite TV channels like Channel 3 sometimes show English language movies dubbed in Thai. However, if you use your remote you can change the audio to English and watch the movie in English. Also, in past experience I've been able to change the language to English commentary when Thai channels show Champions League matches (of course if you have satellite you could just watch it on ESPN). I don't see why they couldn't do the same for World Cup and Euro2008? What's the big deal? All they have to do is make English commentary available on the English audio track. They do it all the time. Perhaps that would cost more money? Anyway, I'm just glad I'm in the U.S. now and able to see every match with English commentary.

[longman15]

Probably about the same proportion as there are Thai subscribers to Sky here in the UK. The main difference is that the Thais that I know here in the UK don't moan about the fact that there's no Thai commentary on Sky. They accept the fact that they're in an English speaking nation and expect English to be used on the TV.

ah, see your argument for True to Sky doesn't work, as if you were a Thai living in England and did subscribe to Sky, you'd do so in the knowledge that there are very few ( if any ? ) Thai channels available to them.

For those of us who LIVE here in Thailand and have paid for the premium True sat. package available, we did so in the knowledge that there are considerably more English channels available than Thai and as such, the package is pretty much slanted towards farangs.

At a guess I'd say there are around 35 plus English channels compared to around 15 Thai at the moment

Added to that, when I initially did my purchase and contract with UBC / True , all the football was in English.

There's no logic the other way for round Thai people here who are interested in the Premiership , now shown exclusively via UBC / True , as the build up / preview shows etc. are all in Thai, though once the match starts the live commentary is in English !?

So it's an overall observation and comment as to the way UBC / True run their business - though if the actual ratio of farang subscribers / viewers is ' healthy ' then there is a cause to "moan" me thinks.

Again, those of us who live here will know you won't get any joy out of any suggestions / complaints or ' moans ' direct to UBC / True.

Though it does seem a pretty easy and cheap fix for all subscribers to be happy, to simply provide commentary in both Thai and English for events such as these.

Anyway, just an observation / thought / comment my side.

Enjoy Eastenders yours ........

Edited June 10, 2008 by longman15

[Jimjim]

Actually Longman, all Premiership matches have commentary in Thai language. If you wanted to hear it sometime, all you have to do is change the language button on the right side of the remote. Also, several of the English language channels have a Thai soundtrack as well, like National Geographic. You just don't hear the Thai soundtrack because your unit is automatically set to be in English.

In addition, there not being English commentary on the Euro games is not True's problem, it's up to those Thai channels to make it available to True so someone could just push the button and hear English or Thai.

Edited June 10, 2008 by Jimjim

[longman15]

Actually Longman, all Premiership matches have commentary in Thai language. If you wanted to hear it sometime, all you have to do is change the language button on the right side of the remote. Also, several of the English language channels have a Thai soundtrack as well, like National Geographic. You just don't hear the Thai soundtrack because your unit is automatically set to be in English.

In addition, there not being English commentary on the Euro games is not True's problem, it's up to those Thai channels to make it available to True so someone could just push the button and hear English or Thai.

Hi Jimjim,

We're aware of optional Thai soundtrack on some channels and my wife does use it occasionally.

However the odd time's we've ( briefly ) tried it for live Premiership matches it doesn't seem to have been active ?

Though please excuse my ignorance on this, this might have been a temporary silence or glitch on their part or pure muppetness on my behalf !?

So if they do indeed provide full Thai commentary for all Premiership matches, good on them and I happily stand corrected.

Not sure about your point about " Thai channels making it available to True " though ?

Surely the Thai channels already do, as they're all broadcasted through True / Sat. t.v. alongside the other ( foreign ) channels, so I'd therefore assume there must be some sort of financial / contractual agreement in place between the two parties ?

If so, it should be then be pretty straightforward for True to request English commentary or at least get access themselves to add it ?

Mightn't be ( and probably won't be ) that straightforward though I'd guess.

Though begging the question again - given that we do pay a significant fee for the full True package / service - and if there are enough Farang subscribers / viewers - shouldn't we have the English audio more readily available for things like Euro 2008 ?

[aries27]

subtitles suck! and replacing original soundtrack sucks all the more...

in the PH, we get live feeds and all english programs are played as is.. because of the situation that english is considered a second language here. must be the same for india? or HK? or singapore? i always took it for granted that this is a situation that may not be happening in other countries who do not speak english. another one of those trade-offs...???

[tuky]

It is soccer, how much commentary can there be? Tennis is more exciting.

"The ball has gone to the left, now it has gone right, now left again, now right...yawn"

[PattayaParent]

True/UBC don't have the rights for broadcasting the Euros, the free to air national Thai TV channels do.

All you're watching on your True/UBC set is their reception of the free to air channels.

You can watch the same games by plugging your telly set directly into your aerial socket and don't need a True/UBC connection at all.

This is not a cause of complaint against True/UBC

[lopburi3]

Actually the free to air Thai TV stations have provided original soundtrack broadcasts for most foreign productions for over 40 years. It used to be via FM simulcast and then converted to dual language (German Stereo system) for those with special TV's. True also normally provide this service for some channels. This poster would expect a cable service that obviously targets English speakers (half a dozen channels are only in English) to broadcast in that language when available.

[Huey]

I have no interest what so ever in soccer, however I do like allot of the Thai Movies. I saw the 2 about King Naruswuan in the Theater with English subtitles and it was GREAT! very very very well done. However when I looked for it in the shops afterwards they had these beautiful sets that included both parts of the movie, but with no subtitles! I mean they obviously already paid to have it translated as it was in the theater so why not on the DVD???

[jeffer]

I saw the 2 about King Naruswuan in the Theater with English subtitles and it was GREAT! very very very well done. However when I looked for it in the shops afterwards they had these beautiful sets that included both parts of the movie, but with no subtitles! I mean they obviously already paid to have it translated as it was in the theater so why not on the DVD???

The film companies won't do it because they believe including English subtitles in Thailand will decrease sales prices on the international market. They argue that if they include the English subtitles they would have to increase the retail price of the DVD in Thailand to discourage people from grey market exporting Thai English subtitled DVDs and undercutting the local distributor in for example the USA. Short sighted if you ask me because you have to wonder just how big the sales are of Thai movies overseas anyway, outside of Thai enclaves where Thai people go to do their shopping. Only one I've ever noticed in western countries was in a large shopping center, Ong Bak with a terrible English soundtrack but okay subtitles. It was selling for only $12 so I don't see how that supports the argument of the Thai distributors. You can buy some Thai movies with English soundtracks in places like Malaysia but they're pirated versions so the Thai film company loses out anyway. They've got it all wrong in my opinion but they don't think so.

[JetsetBkk]

All I want is for them to show the ****ing score in the top left hand corner, so if I turn on after it's started at least I know what the ****ing score is. They are so behind the rest of the world it's a joke.

[Huey]

I saw the 2 about King Naruswuan in the Theater with English subtitles and it was GREAT! very very very well done. However when I looked for it in the shops afterwards they had these beautiful sets that included both parts of the movie, but with no subtitles! I mean they obviously already paid to have it translated as it was in the theater so why not on the DVD???

The film companies won't do it because they believe including English subtitles in Thailand will decrease sales prices on the international market. They argue that if they include the English subtitles they would have to increase the retail price of the DVD in Thailand to discourage people from grey market exporting Thai English subtitled DVDs and undercutting the local distributor in for example the USA. Short sighted if you ask me because you have to wonder just how big the sales are of Thai movies overseas anyway, outside of Thai enclaves where Thai people go to do their shopping. Only one I've ever noticed in western countries was in a large shopping center, Ong Bak with a terrible English soundtrack but okay subtitles. It was selling for only $12 so I don't see how that supports the argument of the Thai distributors. You can buy some Thai movies with English soundtracks in places like Malaysia but they're pirated versions so the Thai film company loses out anyway. They've got it all wrong in my opinion but they don't think so.

Tell me about it, I looked for it last time I was in the States, went to China Town in Philly and only Ong Bak, what I need to be in LA or something. You would think that out of respect for one of their Greatest Kings they would wish to show is majesty to the world like the British and French always seem to do with Movies about their Monarchy. The Thais got something really nice, I mean REALLY nice with this story and for all of their adamant nationalism they let the greed of a few scum bag film companies from showing something really positive to the world. Then they wanna bitch when people can only think of hoes and tsunamis when someone mentions Thailand

[cophen]

Probably about the same proportion as there are Thai subscribers to Sky here in the UK. The main difference is that the Thais that I know here in the UK don't moan about the fact that there's no Thai commentary on Sky. They accept the fact that they're in an English speaking nation and expect English to be used on the TV.

ah, see your argument for True to Sky doesn't work, as if you were a Thai living in England and did subscribe to Sky, you'd do so in the knowledge that there are very few ( if any ? ) Thai channels available to them.

For those of us who LIVE here in Thailand and have paid for the premium True sat. package available, we did so in the knowledge that there are considerably more English channels available than Thai and as such, the package is pretty much slanted towards farangs.

At a guess I'd say there are around 35 plus English channels compared to around 15 Thai at the moment

Added to that, when I initially did my purchase and contract with UBC / True , all the football was in English.

There's no logic the other way for round Thai people here who are interested in the Premiership , now shown exclusively via UBC / True , as the build up / preview shows etc. are all in Thai, though once the match starts the live commentary is in English !?

So it's an overall observation and comment as to the way UBC / True run their business - though if the actual ratio of farang subscribers / viewers is ' healthy ' then there is a cause to "moan" me thinks.

Again, those of us who live here will know you won't get any joy out of any suggestions / complaints or ' moans ' direct to UBC / True.

Though it does seem a pretty easy and cheap fix for all subscribers to be happy, to simply provide commentary in both Thai and English for events such as these.

Anyway, just an observation / thought / comment my side.

Enjoy Eastenders yours ........

True is a Thai company with primarily Thai speaking customers. Soccer is a very popular sport in Thailand. True have a choice when transmitting Euro 2008 games. They can either run a commentary in Thai which the majority of their customers will understand or they can transmit a commentary in English which will be understood by far fewer people. Why would any commercial company choose to antagonise the majority of their customers for the benefit of a few?

BTW cheap shots about my currrent country of residence are just that - cheap shots.

[PattayaParent]

I saw the 2 about King Naruswuan in the Theater with English subtitles and it was GREAT! very very very well done. However when I looked for it in the shops afterwards they had these beautiful sets that included both parts of the movie, but with no subtitles! I mean they obviously already paid to have it translated as it was in the theater so why not on the DVD???

The film companies won't do it because they believe including English subtitles in Thailand will decrease sales prices on the international market. They argue that if they include the English subtitles they would have to increase the retail price of the DVD in Thailand to discourage people from grey market exporting Thai English subtitled DVDs and undercutting the local distributor in for example the USA. Short sighted if you ask me because you have to wonder just how big the sales are of Thai movies overseas anyway, outside of Thai enclaves where Thai people go to do their shopping. Only one I've ever noticed in western countries was in a large shopping center, Ong Bak with a terrible English soundtrack but okay subtitles. It was selling for only $12 so I don't see how that supports the argument of the Thai distributors. You can buy some Thai movies with English soundtracks in places like Malaysia but they're pirated versions so the Thai film company loses out anyway. They've got it all wrong in my opinion but they don't think so.

Oh the irony of it!

[lazeeboy]

All I want is for them to show the ****ing score in the top left hand corner, so if I turn on after it's started at least I know what the ****ing score is. They are so behind the rest of the world it's a joke.

i agree with you jets ,thai comentry is fine as the names are the same in thai ,just turn the sound down and watch ,but why no scores on the screen,i like to surf the tv ,go between movies and footy ,sometimes its 10 minutes before they show the scores

[JetsetBkk]

All I want is for them to show the ****ing score in the top left hand corner, so if I turn on after it's started at least I know what the ****ing score is. They are so behind the rest of the world it's a joke.

i agree with you jets ,thai comentry is fine as the names are the same in thai ,just turn the sound down and watch ,but why no scores on the screen,i like to surf the tv ,go between movies and footy ,sometimes its 10 minutes before they show the scores

My guess is that they have bought only the video feed - no graphics, no score, no logos. So they get three Thai guys in silly white track suits, shut 'em up in a room with a wide-screen TV and that's your programme.

The picture of the stadium that's shown behind them is simply that - a picture. They are not there, they are in Thailand commentating on the video feed. The task of putting the current score in a corner of the screen is way too hard for this company.

[Neeranam]

Probably about the same proportion as there are Thai subscribers to Sky here in the UK. The main difference is that the Thais that I know here in the UK don't moan about the fact that there's no Thai commentary on Sky. They accept the fact that they're in an English speaking nation and expect English to be used on the TV.

I know some guys who moan about road signs not being in English - lazy gits, some of them been living here for 30 years and can't read a word.

[longman15]

Probably about the same proportion as there are Thai subscribers to Sky here in the UK. The main difference is that the Thais that I know here in the UK don't moan about the fact that there's no Thai commentary on Sky. They accept the fact that they're in an English speaking nation and expect English to be used on the TV.

ah, see your argument for True to Sky doesn't work, as if you were a Thai living in England and did subscribe to Sky, you'd do so in the knowledge that there are very few ( if any ? ) Thai channels available to them.

For those of us who LIVE here in Thailand and have paid for the premium True sat. package available, we did so in the knowledge that there are considerably more English channels available than Thai and as such, the package is pretty much slanted towards farangs.

At a guess I'd say there are around 35 plus English channels compared to around 15 Thai at the moment

Added to that, when I initially did my purchase and contract with UBC / True , all the football was in English.

There's no logic the other way for round Thai people here who are interested in the Premiership , now shown exclusively via UBC / True , as the build up / preview shows etc. are all in Thai, though once the match starts the live commentary is in English !?

So it's an overall observation and comment as to the way UBC / True run their business - though if the actual ratio of farang subscribers / viewers is ' healthy ' then there is a cause to "moan" me thinks.

Again, those of us who live here will know you won't get any joy out of any suggestions / complaints or ' moans ' direct to UBC / True.

Though it does seem a pretty easy and cheap fix for all subscribers to be happy, to simply provide commentary in both Thai and English for events such as these.

Anyway, just an observation / thought / comment my side.

Enjoy Eastenders yours ........

True is a Thai company with primarily Thai speaking customers. Soccer is a very popular sport in Thailand. True have a choice when transmitting Euro 2008 games. They can either run a commentary in Thai which the majority of their customers will understand or they can transmit a commentary in English which will be understood by far fewer people. Why would any commercial company choose to antagonise the majority of their customers for the benefit of a few?

BTW cheap shots about my currrent country of residence are just that - cheap shots.

if indeed True have a choice when transmitting the Euro 2008 games, which some former posts ( maybe correctly ) dispute ?

then surely a more logical and simple choice would be to supply commentary in both English and Thai and ALL viewers and subscribers here would be happy.

there's no need then to " antagonize the the majority .... for the benefit of a few " - something by the way I never suggested or implied !?

my main reason for the initial post, mostly just out of curiosity, was to try and find out what exactly the ratio is between Thai and Farang subscribers / viewers -

as we might not just be as " few " as you think ?

BTW - it's FOOTBALL not Soccer !

[Jimjim]

Longman, please note I'm not trying to argue and I understand your frustration. I just want to correct some incorrect information.

I don't know why you didn't hear Thai announcers when you turned it during Premiership matches. But believe me, True didn't spend the 3 million dollars or whatever it was to buy rights to air the Premiership, outbidding ESPN, and not have Thai commentators for the matches. Even when it was on ESPN, they had Thai announcers on the Thai soundtrack for most if not all matches. However you won't hear it on a replay of a game on ESPN, but will with True Sports. Either a glitch or you just heard silence as they weren't saying anything at that specific moment. Who knows? It's always there when on the Thai soundtrack. Believe me. I've heard it many a time. Leave it on for 5 minutes and you'll see. Although, you couldn't test that until August!

As for hearing English commentary for Euro2008, I disagree with anyone who says True could easily supply the English commentary. They can't. It's not up to them because they don't have the rights. You can just see it on True because they have Thai broadcast channels as part of their package. People often fail to note these differences and like to blame True for the programming of many channels which they don't even produce them, but just show the channels on their service. For some reason, even in the World Cup, this feature (English commentary) was not available because of the agreement between FIFA and the broadcast Thai stations. I assume it is the same with UEFA and the broadcast Thai stations. For some reason, the agreement includes only rights to broadcast matches in the local language, and not English. Not sure why this is but I remember reading a news article about it. Perhaps an editor of sports at a newspaper like Bangkok Post would be willing to shed light on the issue? Realistically, it could be made available quite easily I would imagine, but it isn't.

Here's a thought. I'm watching Euros right now, and in the U.S. and while the commentators are English, Irish, and Scottish, they're all being directly employed by ESPN in the U.S. and in fact they are physically in the U.S. just doing the commentary from a studio. They are not actually in Austria and Switzerland at the matches. Perhaps, even in England, whoever is carrying the matches with English commentary (although the commentators may have the luxury of actually being there) is directly employing those commentators as well. So, for whatever reason, UEFA doesn't have any commentary rights but it's just taken care of by each company in each country that buys the rights. So, if the Thai broadcast stations want the option of having English commentary for those watching on satellite, perhaps they'd have to pay more money to make this available, and they just aren't willing to do that. That's what I'd imagine is the case.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Jimjim

[Jimjim]

Oh, and by the way, if you look up the etymology you'll see the world "soccer" came from England originally. The usage of this word just evolved differently and that's why Americans, some South Africans and some Australians still use this word. Sorry, it's not an American invention!

Oh, and again, I was surprised when I saw the percentage of Thai subscribers compared to foreigners. It's more than you think and it's definitely a majority. Sorry I can't remember the exact figure.

One more edit: Cophen, you don't seem to understand. He's not asking that the games be broadcast on Thai channels with English commentary. He's asking that, when watching those games on Thai broadcast channels via Truevisions satellite service, an English commentary be made available on the second soundtrack which only those watching in satellite have the ability to listen to, which is made often made available on other programs being shown on those same channels.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Jimjim

[Jimjim]

My guess is that they have bought only the video feed - no graphics, no score, no logos. So they get three Thai guys in silly white track suits, shut 'em up in a room with a wide-screen TV and that's your programme.

The picture of the stadium that's shown behind them is simply that - a picture. They are not there, they are in Thailand commentating on the video feed. The task of putting the current score in a corner of the screen is way too hard for this company.

They actually have bought the graphics with score as well. It's just that they are only shown every 10 minutes as I bet they assume most will come up with their score and time graphic with their own logo to be shown throughout the match.

[PattayaParent]

Oh, and by the way, if you look up the etymology you'll see the world "soccer" came from England originally. The usage of this word just evolved differently and that's why Americans, some South Africans and some Australians still use this word. Sorry, it's not an American invention!

Oh, and again, I was surprised when I saw the percentage of Thai subscribers compared to foreigners. It's more than you think and it's definitely a majority. Sorry I can't remember the exact figure.

One more edit: Cophen, you don't seem to understand. He's not asking that the games be broadcast on Thai channels with English commentary. He's asking that, when watching those games on Thai broadcast channels via Truevisions satellite service, an English commentary be made available on the second soundtrack which only those watching in satellite have the ability to listen to, which is made often made available on other programs being shown on those same channels.

How do you get this second channel to operate? I looked at my language settings last night and everything is set to English, how do I onw what programmes are available in dual languages?

[Crossy]

How do you get this second channel to operate? I looked at my language settings last night and everything is set to English, how do I onw what programmes are available in dual languages?

It depends upon your receiver. On my remote there's a button with a little speaker and a '?' which switches language, it's on the right hand side, above the 'mute' button.

AFAIK The only way to tell if it's in dual language is the actually try the other setting.

[keddy]

Oh, and by the way, if you look up the etymology you'll see the world "soccer" came from England originally. The usage of this word just evolved differently and that's why Americans, some South Africans and some Australians still use this word. Sorry, it's not an American invention!

Oh, and again, I was surprised when I saw the percentage of Thai subscribers compared to foreigners. It's more than you think and it's definitely a majority. Sorry I can't remember the exact figure.

One more edit: Cophen, you don't seem to understand. He's not asking that the games be broadcast on Thai channels with English commentary. He's asking that, when watching those games on Thai broadcast channels via Truevisions satellite service, an English commentary be made available on the second soundtrack which only those watching in satellite have the ability to listen to, which is made often made available on other programs being shown on those same channels.

You're not still peddling that daft argument are you! even the American real football team don't call it soccer as testified by interviews with the team, recently. The Australian football federation no longer call the game by the word soccer. Yes the word comes from England so does Rounders but we don't use that word to describe Baseball anymore, things have moved on keep up!

[Jimjim]

Hey keddy, I enjoyed West Ham this season. They played well.

It's not really a daft argument. Get it through your thick head that we're talking about a difference in dialect. The U.S.A. is not England and I'm glad it's not. Yes internationally it's known as football, and I completely agree and usually call it football because I watch the Premiership more than anything else. However, it's just not widely accepted in the U.S. yet. Rounders is the British version of baseball and I don't give a wit if you call it that. But if you're in America, call it baseball. If I'm in England, I call soccer football. Don't see why it really matters.

Don't blame Americans for calling it soccer when your country came up with the word. There's a perfectly logical explanation why American football is called football in the U.S. but you can research it yourself.

You certainly don't have a future as a diplomat.

I still hear some Australians and South Africans call it soccer as well. I'm sure some on the American team call it football as half of them play in Europe and are used to the usage of the word. Not too hard to figure out.

Beckham's been in the U.S. long enough that he's always calling it soccer these days. Linguistic change takes at least a generation so perhaps in 50 years it will be known as football even in the U.S. though it's hard to know what to do with American football and the NFL linguistically. By the way, did you go to university? You don't seem to be a thinking man. Farewell.