Ubc programs

[z21rhd]

Have others noticed that UBC's programs (other than news)

are at least 95 %  repeats - the movies are old often childish.

It appears that UBC bought most of it offerings a long time ago

and now presents as new . UBC should be ashamed - it provides no value for its expensive service.

[lopburi3]

The problem, according to UBC, is that not enough of us are paying for their service for them to make any money.  

They do have a point in that they can still not sell advertising time on their channels.

[MaiChai]

And of course UBC are not allowed to carry any advertising, which means the only revenue is from subscribers. When will they go bust? Must be a matter of time?

[Dexlowe]

FYI -- UBC is an amalgam of two separate cable channels, IBC and UTV. They both started off with grandiose ideas, but in typical Thai fashion, failed to do their sums about the potential client base. They were hit hard by the 1997 crash, and the only way they could survive was to join forces. Both had outlayed huge amounts on fibre optic cables and satellite dishes, and if I remember rightly, they were relying on the government to allow them to carry advertising. Which didn't happen and still hasn't happened. The conjoined company, UBC, carries massive debts, and the only way it can recoup its losses is to be allowed to carry advertising which would give it a sufficient capital base to make the service cheap enough to penetrate the market in such a way that would make it profitable. But don't get your hopes up, because the combined power of iTV (backed by the Central group) and Nation TV has not been able to get the govt to change its mind. It's a shame because this service is badly needed in Thailand, especially when you consider the quality of programs that are shown on the History, National Geographic, Discovery and Animal Planet channels, not to mention the general entertainment value of Xcyte, sport channels etc. UBC won't go bust -- it just simply won't improve until the govt allows advertising. Regarding films, one thing that does disappoint me is that over the years it has shown some superb lesser-known movies, but it does not bother to rotate them, preferring instead to concentrate on what it perceives to be the most popular. Sorry, UBC, but there's only so many times I can watch "Miss Congeniality" before I start to puke. But thanks for "CSI" and the chance to watch the All Blacks thrash the Wallabies.

Cheers,

Dex.

[LPCustom69]

With the fiber optic cable an satellite dishes, it seems they should be adding high speed broadband, if they're not already.

:cool:

[MaiChai]

IBC was the cable side, UBC the satelite side (using Taksins Shin satelite). Unlikely to see broadband on IBC, it isn't that sort of company

[singa-traz]

Internet Thailand has a CableModem offering:

- http://www.inet.co.th/service/cablemodem/index.html

And they just had a free trial:

- http://www.inet.co.th/promo/cable-promo.html

[LPCustom69]

The pricing seems ridiculous, though the service is desirable, unless you can write it off as a business expense. Hopefully it will drop in price in the not too distant future, as it has in the states.

:cool:

[lopburi3]

IBC was the cable side, UBC the satelite side (using Taksins Shin satelite). Unlikely to see broadband on IBC, it isn't that sort of company

Backwards.  

     IBC was a multi point UHF servce (as was ThaiSky).  They did not have cable of any type AFAIK.  They were a part of the satelite group.  UTV was a spin off of Telecom Asia phone company and they joined together as UBC, using the fibre optic system of UTV and the new DTH system of IBC and dropped the UHF service.

[ChiangMaiThai]

I agree completley. UBC is almost all crap. I constantly find myself watching documentaries where they are discussing what might happen in the year 2000. So why can't they sell advertising and show us some relevant programming? Is Thaksin and Co. stopping them? And is there really no market at all for live American TV via satellite? I understand that we are below the horizon line, but one satellite could beam to another and another to get the signal here and I would gladly dump UBC for some real programming even if it was more expensive.