Billboard Firms Face Tough New Laws

[george]

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

Billboard firms face tough new laws

Unhappy at plan to keep large signs 50m from main roads

BANGKOK: -- Billboard companies have complained that laws expected to become effective next year to regulate outdoor advertising could harm their business.

The Public Works Department of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and the Town and Country Planning Division of the Interior Ministry have drafted new ministerial regulations to regulate the proliferation of outdoor signs and billboards.

The current building control laws stipulate that signs and billboards of specified heights and sizes undergo periodic inspection and certification by a registered official to assure proper and safe use during their service life. They also need a compulsory insurance policy.

Noppadon Tansalarak, president and CEO of Master Ad, said that under the current building control laws, any sign or billboard installed on the top of a building was required to be no more than 6 metres high.

However, the new regulations will specify that signs and billboards extend no more than 30 metres from the ground, whether or not they are on a building. Signs and billboards will also have to be more than 50 metres from any main road.

"The new draft has been designed by regulators who regard signs and billboards as visual pollution," said Noppadon.

He said that he accepted the authorities' new regulation forcing all outdoor signs and billboards to be no more than 30 metres high, but added: "However, the order to locate them at least 50 metres from main roads is quite impractical. Signs and billboards are there for advertising and putting them so far from main roads will limit their effectiveness."

He said two metres from main roads would be far more preferable.

Noppadon said Thailand could be a regional hub for outdoor media if the business received proper support from the government.

"There are between 1,400 and 1,500 outdoor billboards in Bangkok and most of the illegal ones have been erected by small investors and owners of real-estate projects, who are not members of the association," said Yuwapol Pornpratanvej, president of the Advertising and Sign Producing Association.

"They have not received permission from the state authority and some of them are in restricted areas."

The Advertising and Sign Producing Association has 169 members consisting of sign and billboard producers and suppliers.

People in the past have been killed or injured by the collapse of advertising signs. Yuwapol said billboards that had collapsed normally lacked good care and maintenance by operators, who were not in the sign and advertising media industry.

"There were about 110 illegal billboards that belonged to association members, but almost 90 per cent of them have been removed already," said Yuwapol. "The government should perform the role of inspector and allow the private sector to regulate itself."

Thanoo Sricot, deputy director-general of the BMA's Public Works Department, said there were many illegal signs and outdoor billboards in Bangkok and some of them had already been removed.

"There are about 285 left and they will be removed also," he said.

Paichit Thienthong, president of the Media Agency Association of Thailand, said that with the slower economy, spending on outdoor advertising media had dropped by 4 per cent from January to May compared to the same period last year.

She said product vendors would consider the visibility of outdoor media when advertising their products.

"As a media agency, we love to see sustainable growth in all areas of media," she added.

-- The Nation 2008-06-23

[hkt83100]

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

[...]

And - please - the next on the agenda should be the regulation of those blaring advertising pickups...

Edited June 23, 2008 by hkt83100

[simon43]

Noppadon said Thailand could be a regional hub for outdoor media...

Why do Thai people have this fascination with hubs??? Surely this proposed 'hub' simply means lots of billboard adverts ... er ... like it is now!

Simon

[Felt 35]

Thailand could be a regional hub for outdoor media if the business received proper support from the government.

= Regional champion in littering.

[Tony Clifton]

Lots of black money going around from all the billboards.

Good luck.

[steveromagnino]

Lots of black money going around from all the billboards.

that's a bit racialist innit?!

Good job I reckon, super eye sore.

[Seneque]

Start with a HUB ... it will end as a CRACKDOWN !

[Briggsy]

I see the Public Works Department is announcing that it needs to up the monthly take.