Free vouchers for digital TV set-top boxes

[webfact]

DIGITAL TV
Free vouchers for digital TV set-top boxes
Usanee Mongkolporn
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) will start mailing vouchers for free digital-TV set-top boxes to households in four provinces by June, commissioner Supinya Klangnarong said yesterday.

The four provinces are Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima and Songkhla, which will be covered initially by the digital-TV network providers.

An NBTC source said the commission's broadcasting committee would meet on Monday to approve the process of delivering these vouchers to about 25 million households, with those in the four provinces being the first few.

However, the watchdog's Broadcasting and Telecommunications Resources Development Fund for Public Interest (BITFP) board has yet to finalise the value of these vouchers, though it is believed that the vouchers will be priced at around Bt1,000. The price of set-top boxes generally ranges between Bt900 and Bt1,500.

The Bank of Thailand will print the vouchers to prevent counterfeiting, while Thailand Post will oversee the delivery, according to the source. These vouchers can then be used to pick up a digital-TV set-top box and a compatible antenna at specific shops.

Suppliers can then exchange these vouchers for cash at all branches of state-owned Krungthai Bank, for which NBTC has already deposited Bt11.9 billion. These funds come from the up-front payments it received from the auction of 24 commercial digital-TV licences last December.

The NBTC has given digital-TV network operators the green light to run a trial service from April 1 to 24 before it officially grants licences to the operators of 24 channels on April 25. This trial period will initially focus on the first four provinces, where users can use the new set-top boxes. Consumers who already have cable or satellite set-top boxes can also access the channels nationwide during the trial period.

At a seminar the NBTC held yesterday to learn about consumers' views, the most frequently asked questions were about the final price of the voucher, digital-TV coverage and how the digital-TV system works.


-- The Nation 2014-03-28

[Suriya4]

Delay AGAIN?

[Langsuan Man]

I wonder how long it will take the government to realize that once again they don't have the money to pay for another "giveaway" program ?

[lopburi3]

I suspect this program was fully funded by the cost to broadcasters for transmission license. Believe this has been a normal extension by most governments to lessen the burden to customers when changing from analog to digital transmission.

[astral]

Will they be rationalising the transmitters positions

At the moment you need 3 or 4 different antennae pointing in different directions

to pick up all the analog channels

[citizen33]

Somebody on the merged thread asked how you know if your existing TV is capable of receiving digital terrestrial TV. The answer that many gave about looking up the TV specs is indeed one way to find out. For those who can't find the specs then press the 'source' or 'input' button of the TV. Many TVs will display a list where 'TV' indicates analogue TV, while 'DTV' indicates digital terrestrial.