NBC, MCOT Enhancing Asean TV Programming

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ASEAN TV

NBC, MCOT enhancing Asean TV programming

By Watchiranont Thongtep

The Nation

Nation Broadcasting Corporation and MCOT are revamping and extending Asean TV to strengthen news and information programming as well as to help the 10 Southeast Asian countries usher in the Asean Economic Community in 2015.

Both companies expect the overhaul, which starts on June 21, to bring more benefits and to achieve the same level of reputation and reliability as Singapore-based Channel News Asia in a couple of years.

Since 2009, Asean TV has been disseminating a wide range of news and information in English on politics, economics, society, culture, entertainment and sports within the region. Its mission is to promote the identity and collaboration of Asean countries and improve cooperation among Asean members.

Suthichai Yoon, editor-in-chief of Nation Multimedia Group, said yesterday that this second phase of the collaboration between MCOT and NBC would expand the production hours for Asean TV to six a day from three since the first phase was launched in April. In the third phase, production will be increased to between eight and 10 hours daily.

Service will be extended to 120 countries on four continents this year, including almost 600 million viewers in Asean countries.

Highly experienced and professional editors and reporters from The Nation newspaper will join the news team to raise news production standards to the international level.

As a member of Asia News Network, The Nation team can access news sources, stories, analyses and features from around the region, which would enhance news content for Asean TV, Suthichai said.

MCOT president Tanawat Wansom said his company was responsible for providing transmission equipment, production and management as well as professional staff from MCOT, which operates Modernine TV, and the Thai News Agency.

Asean TV will dispatch crews to cover news stories in each country in the region and report Asia's perspective to the world audience.

For example, throughout this month, Asean TV features an election countdown with updates on the Thai campaign. This new feature has added 15 minutes to "Asean Newsroom" from 7-8am and 9-10.30pm every weekday in the run-up to the national poll on July 3.

On election day, the programme will broadcast live in English with news flashes and insightful commentary from across the country, Tanawat said.

Suthichai said Asean TV would be the first English-language channel here to air Thailand's general election as it unfolds to many parts of the world.

This information would help international media such as CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp gain a better understanding of the Thai situation, especially after the Kingdom welcomes a new elected government.

"After the revamp, we expect to see Bt60 million to Bt70 million in revenue from advertisements and sponsorships in the first year, and both companies will share the revenue evenly," he said.

Given all these factors, Asean TV will surely reach its ambitious three-year goal of becoming a leading regional news station like Channel News Asia, he said.

Asean TV is accessible by many channels - Thaicom satellite C-band, True TV 99, mobile apps and the Internet at www.aseantv.net.

-- The Nation 2011-06-09

[MILT]

The Nation? <deleted>

[jfchandler]

Highly experienced and professional editors and reporters from The Nation newspaper will join the news team to raise news production standards to the international level.

All I can say is, if The Nation brings the same professional skills to the TV venture that they currently bring to many of their news reports posted here on ThaiVisa, it will be a sad sad day for ASEAN TV viewers.