Watching Championship Football In Thailand

[fletchsmile]

OK, so after Bolton's relegation from the Premier League, what's the best way to watch live Championship football in Thailand?

All suggestions welcome...

[bangkok blue]

It seems the company called GMM Grammy that have the rights for EURO 2012 will screen the championship from next season. The cost of the box is 1590 bhat. I think you may need to pay around 300bht a month for their GMM sport one channel as games will be shown on this and football plus channel. They have a facebook page. Search GMM sport and double check for yourself. My friend at The Nation told me this info a few months back, so I'm pretty sure it's correct. Looking forward to Leicester getting 3 points off your boys next season

[fletchsmile]

It seems the company called GMM Grammy that have the rights for EURO 2012 will screen the championship from next season. The cost of the box is 1590 bhat. I think you may need to pay around 300bht a month for their GMM sport one channel as games will be shown on this and football plus channel. They have a facebook page. Search GMM sport and double check for yourself. My friend at The Nation told me this info a few months back, so I'm pretty sure it's correct. Looking forward to Leicester getting 3 points off your boys next season

Thanks for the info. I'd already checked GMM but didn't see anything about the English Championship games. Checking again, there isn't anything on there yet. Will watch out for it. Might even get it anyway for the Euro 2012 games although it's difficult getting decent info from them. Have to say their website is abysmal in terms of info about their products and services

I still remember the Bolton - Leicester game of December 2001 when I was back visiting the UK for Xmas/ New Year. What a game. Super John McGinley one of the Bolton fans all time favourite strikers ended up in goal as we were reduced to 9 men following some very poor refereeing from Mike Riley (no change there) and the controversies surrounding the vile Robbie Savage who was subbed after 24 minutes for his antics. From being 2-0 down including an own goal where everything went wrong, Bolton equalised in the dying seconds to claim a draw at 2-2 which felt like a victory in the circumstances.

Also Frank Worthington ex Leicester used to be a great favourite in his day, a few years earlier when he moved to Bolton. Should have won goal of the season with an overhead flick turn and volley, but TV coverage was on the "wrong channel" in the days where BBC and ITV alternated coverage and one did save of the season and the other goal of the season. Bolton seem to attract these unlucky stories

[fletchsmile]

Just asked Mrs Smile to phone GMM TV as per their website:

- She asked about the English Championship, the person on the other end didn't know anything about that

- They don't have an English speaking call centre - like they have no English website. Which I sort of suspected and is why I asked the Mrs to call. I expected to speak to someone in Thai with no knowledge of football, and probably their products and services either, and although my Thai is decent didn't want to struggle thru this

- Yes they do have the Euro 2012. But apparently GMM sell only the box but not the satellite dish, which seems bizarre to me. I was looking for someone to come and install the works - as I don't mind paying for it

The problem we have is living in a condo we are not allowed personal satellite dishes. There is a large central one hooked up to True Visions. So would need to speak to the nittibukon / juristic person to ask permission to someone use the dish, which probably will involve the juristic person staff having no clue on the matter.

Does anyone on here actually have a GMM box? If so how do they did they do it/ Can it use the True dish?

Cheers

Fletch

Does anyone actually have one of the

[MrRed]

It is a digi-box you do not need a dish.

[fletchsmile]

It is a digi-box you do not need a dish.

Thanks Mr. Red. What's a digi-box? How does it get its feed/ source/ input into the box?

[bangkok blue]

Mr. Smile, I too was at that game. wasn't Paul Warhurst the first to get sent off? Muzzy had to be taken off as Bolton players were trying to get him a red card and he was already on a yellow.

You do need a dish for the GMM-Z box, GMM have confirmed it will work on ANY dish, including truevisions. Just unplug the box and away you go with the new one. Not sure about it working on condo shared dish, but I would have thought if your current box works on it then this one also should. I'll try and get confirmation from my friend at the nation about champ footy. But I'm sure she mentioned this company have the rights.

[fletchsmile]

Mr. Smile, I too was at that game. wasn't Paul Warhurst the first to get sent off? Muzzy had to be taken off as Bolton players were trying to get him a red card and he was already on a yellow.

You do need a dish for the GMM-Z box, GMM have confirmed it will work on ANY dish, including truevisions. Just unplug the box and away you go with the new one. Not sure about it working on condo shared dish, but I would have thought if your current box works on it then this one also should. I'll try and get confirmation from my friend at the nation about champ footy. But I'm sure she mentioned this company have the rights.

Bolton got 2 straight reds. Muzzy Izzet came on for Savage and I if I remember I Think he got two yellows so ironically got sent off. Yes after the ridiculous straight reds - should have been no more than yellows really - I think everyone was trying to get players sent off as they realised how poor Riley was and the poor decisions he was making. Bolton were looking to compensate, and Leicester wondering if they could get any more.

Cheers for the info. We already have True visions, and we have a splitter (no longer used) so could hopefully avoid plugging the wires in and out. Just a bit reluctant to buy if 1) it doesn't work and 2) have to set it up myself and don't know what I'm doing - that said I've learnt a lot from trial and error with True Visions and electrics generally in Thailand when things go wrong - I usually work out the answers, just that it's quicker to use an expert. I just want to know it'll work, otherwise I'm the type to keep trying for ages...

Cheers

Fletch

[MrRed]

You do not need a dish from GMM as you stated BB

[bangkok blue]

100% confirmed that GMM will show the Npower champ and Bundesliga from next season.

[Leckyman]

Excellent news.

Now, where can you buy the box from? Are there outlets all over the country?

[SantiSuk]

So it seems that the six ptions are:

1. An aerial to get the Thai terrestrial channels directly cabled into the back of the TV set(s)

2. A THB 1,590 GMM Grammy digibox that you plug your existing satellite dish feed cable into the back of and take an HDMI or colour phone plug connection between the digibox and TV set. Teccys or those who can have a sensible discussion with a sensible installer may be able to get the box to do more than one TV

3. Stream it live on the internet if you are lucky enough to have the requisite speeds (some say 3mb is enough, some say more). I wonder if the servers will survive the worldwide onslaught?

3. Go to a bar in Thailand or go on holiday elsewhere or stay in England

5. Don't watch it - it's overhyped anyway.

Looks like I'll be a one or two

There is talk on another thread (mainly directed at restaurant/bar installations about there being a GMM Grammy option to pay a deposit of 3,000 baht and get a digi box for domestic use only with all the same stuff that True Sports gives plus their own programming (Euro 2012, NPower Championship, Bundesliga etc) for unlimited time (without mention of a monthly rental). Seems unlikely that last bit, but even if there were a monthly rental it would be cheaper than paying for True Visions Gold Package. Anyone confirm or deny?

I have not seen any information on whether the programmes will be identical on GMM Grammy and the terrestrial channels? I.e. will they have the same depth of coverage and the same ability to hear some of the games at least with English language commentary? I saw someone say that with the existing True signals of the terestrial channels you can switch between English and Thai sometimes. I did not know that - usually 3 or 7 has been in Thai and the other one has been in English so I just take potluck. I would have thought that the language switching facility was a function of True's digibox (one certainly uses that remote) so I doubt that there will be language switching capabilities unless the GMM Grammy box will have switching capabilities?

I assume that if you do go for the aerial option it has the advantage that you can, for the medium future at least, watch a few Thai channels when the satellite is storm-clouded-out. You aerial watchers out there - is that true?

I assume that an aerial installer just puts up an antennae and cables it directly to your TV set, with a capibilty to split to several sets, same as in the UK. In the UK that would cost about GBP 100 to 150 (5,000 baht to 7,500 baht) for a non digital aerial. anyone had a price here in Thailand? I would not be surprised if we would be looking at nearer 1,000 baht depending on local reception conditions. I always did fancy a wavy bamboo pole to set off my concrete and glass falang abode Presumably you townies can't do that though.

Strikes me that there is still insufficient info out there to make a sensible decision between an aerial and a GMM Grammy digibox, although there ought to be a better chance of a broader range of English language matches available on the digibox (that's only a guess!).

Perhaps I'll do both 1. and 2. - seems like either route might have longer term benefits.

[Aranyrammie]

If anybody is lucky enough to be buying a new tv, makro and tesco lotus have promotions on, you get a free gmmz box thrown in. I guess you can buy them too.

[mackemray]

I've bought the GMM box but can't get it tuned in properly. GMM Call Center say I have to reposition my True Visions satellite dish (red one) but this will obviously mess up my True Visions reception. Any ideas anyone?

[fletchsmile]

I've bought the GMM box but can't get it tuned in properly. GMM Call Center say I have to reposition my True Visions satellite dish (red one) but this will obviously mess up my True Visions reception. Any ideas anyone?

Had to smile at this.

Yes the support from GMM is abysmal. Their website is poor. I also find it amazing that GMM as well as loads of other places are selling the box, but not selling the satellite side you need to go with it. They can't even tell you how to get it up and running.

It's also a problem for people in Condos who aren't able to put up their own dish, but rely on a large dish on top of the Condo (like us).

Finally got ours working. The line in comes from a large dish on top of the condo building for True Visions, which we obviously can't change in any way. Fed that through a satellite splitter, so one line now feeds the True Vision Box, and one the GMM box. For some people that works straight away. Try that before you do anything else. Not sure where you buy a splitter, as we already had an old one, but the type of thing you're looking for is as below and probably available somewhere around Panthip.

http://www.satellitetvthailand.net/index.php?cPath=50

For us it didn't work straight away, and a few more tweaks were needed. We kept getting an "E52 error message saying no signal" Mrs Smile went on Panthip.com to look at the blogs there for a fix. If you get to that stage let us know.

The whole experience felt like buying a car and having to find your own engine to put in it, with no-one able to explain how to get it started properly.

Once it was all up and running, she then called GMM to register the box, and GMM for once were very efficient in doing so. Without registering you can't have channel 000 and other channels for the Euro 2012. I'm hoping this will also work for the English Championship come August - hence the thread.

So all in all not a great customer experience, but not too bad now it's up and running, and what can you expect anyway for 1,500 baht in Thailand where these things are generally monopolised. Really would like to see them get their act together though as True Visions is also generally poor, but little alternative

[fletchsmile]

Excellent news.

Now, where can you buy the box from? Are there outlets all over the country?

Loads of places are selling them. Including GMM themselves (tho they don't seem to sell the dish), Powerbuy and I believe 7-11 s.

We bought ours from Manpong (DVD chain store) in Central Rama III. The staff in there are always great and really friendly. The girl told us that quite a few people had had problems getting them to work. I asked them if we could return it if we couldn't get it to work. They had a chat and said Ok we could return if it didn't, but we wouldn't get a cash refund, and could have goods to the value in return. We buy quite a lot of DVDs from there anyway, particularly for the kids, which is why they know us quite well, so no problem. So a big thank you to Manpong Rama III, otherwise a good chance we would have just given up the ghost.

[madmitch]

Is anyone able to confirm whether Championship football is available on the GMMZ box?

If so, is it free, if not free how do you pay?

Are games live, delayed or both? Which channel is it on and and is there a schedule?

So many questions but it would be great to see my team in action occasionally.

[madmitch]

Just seen the other thread so I know part of the answer.

[SantiSuk]

Just seen the other thread so I know part of the answer.

What do you still need to know?

What I dont know (since I have a box from the Euros) is whether you can still buy a GMM box and whether they will activate it for you.