Thai Public Indifferent To PM's TV Show

[webfact]

Public indifferent to PM's TV show

By The Nation

The public is uninterested in a weekly pro-government television programme, "Trust in Thailand Under PM Abhisit", with just a small portion of respondents to a survey saying they watched it regularly.

In a poll by the National Statistics Office of 5,800 respondents from December 1 to 17, only 6.2 per cent said they regularly watched the show. The largest portion of respondents, 54 per cent, said they occasionally viewed the programme, while 39 per cent never did.

Another pro-government show, "Inside the Cabinet" was followed regularly by 3.4 per cent of respondents, with 33 per cent saying they watched it occasionally and the rest, 63 per cent, saying they never watched it.

The survey interviewed people over 18 from distinct families, mostly farmers, self-employed workers, housewives and government retirees.

Asked to rate the credibility of government information, 84.2 per cent said it was moderately-to-very credible, 13.4 per cent said it had little credibility and 2.4 per cent said it had no credibility.

For other government information content, the percentages of regular, occasional and non-watchers was 8.4, 71.1 and 20.5 respectively. The figures for live television programmes on government activities were 12.2, 80.2 and 7.6 per cent, respectively.

Of those who rarely or never watched such programmes, the reasons given were: "uninterested", "have no time", "not a television watcher" and "not receptive to government content".

Asked to list government policies they liked, respondents rated the following in order of preference: 12-year free education; gold-card health insurance; and Bt500 monthly pension for old people, which were initiated by the Democrat Party.

Other preferred policies were free school milk; student contingency loans; village funds; the Thai Khem Khaeng (Invest for Strength) stimulus package; the One Tambon One Product (Otop) scheme; and off-system debt assistance.

-- The Nation 2011-03-23

[ib1b4]

Why are these ridiculous surveys being posted , Thailand has more than 60 million citizens but these surveys only only represent less than 1% of the population. in this case 18 families.

[whybother]

Why are these ridiculous surveys being posted , Thailand has more than 60 million citizens but these surveys only only represent less than 1% of the population. in this case 18 families.

5,800 people from only 18 families?? 322 per family!!

The survey interviewed people over 18 from distinct families

But, yes ... ridiculous surveys.

Edited March 22, 2011 by whybother

[Thaddeus]

The only way to increase the viewing figures is to get cabinet members to camp it up a bit and overdub some boiiiing noises.

[whybother]

The only way to increase the viewing figures is to get cabinet members to camp it up a bit and overdub some boiiiing noises.

What? They don't do that? No wonder no one watches.

[Bagwan]

The only way to increase the viewing figures is to get cabinet members to camp it up a bit and overdub some boiiiing noises.

Thank you for that. Am now mopping up the coffee.

[SomTumTiger]

Of course - its broadcast on Sunday mornings. Nobody is awake. Stupid survey.

[random]

I thought the Thais liked watching nonsense and fiction, I thought the figures would be higher for this biggest work of fiction in Thailand since the change in the weapon that killed the Japanese reporter.

[rubl]

No real surprise in the poll results. Even in 'outstanding' democracies in Europe an 'hour with the PM' would be in the bottom-10 of programs watched. What chance does the PM have against those lovable soaps here?

One interesting item in the poll "Asked to rate the credibility of government information, 84.2 per cent said it was moderately-to-very credible ...".

[animatic]

The harsh truth is that this is the same for ALL PM's TV or radio shows.

No one except those motivated to join the political ranks for fun and profit, gives a rats patootie about any of these talk shows.

They do care when something is important enough to interrupt the soaps at night, if it doesn't interput them for too long.

Edited March 23, 2011 by animatic

[hammered]

Thai people in bored with politics shocker. Try finding anyone who isnt insane or a red or yellow nutter who wants to talk politics rather than premier league, sex, gambling, alcohol, gossip etc etc

Still some will get interested enough to go check a box when the dosh starts floating around and the e-tans/pick ups turn up to pack em in and drive em off to ballot box land, or they get very very nice odds on a political outcome in their constituency from an underground gambling racket, or they await tranche two to arrive after the village meets its "vote goal"