Digital TV subsidy coupon set at 1,000 baht

[webfact]

Digital TV subsidy coupon set at 1,000 baht



BANGKOK: -- The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund has endorsed a 1,000 baht digital TV subsidy coupon for the people to buy set top boxes in promoting them to switch to digital TV watch.

But the subsidy coupon endorsement needs to receive final say by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) before distributing to the public to use as discount to buy digital set top boxes for the switch from analogue to digital TV system.

NBTC secretary-general Thakorn Tanthasit said the coupon endorsement has yet to get a say from the NBTC board.

If the board ruled that it should have a public hearing, coupon distribution will be delayed for another 30-45 days from late July or early August, he said.

The coupon value of 1,000 baht was calculated from information provided by the working committee on the subsidy, he said.

The cost of a set-top box should stay at about 680 baht, rising to 1,020 baht including management, tax, insurance, and profit.

Earlier, secretary-general of the Foundation for Consumers Saree Ongsomwang said the coupon value should be in a range of 512 to 1,000 baht.

NBTC board chairman ACM Thares Punsri, also the fund’s chairman, admitted that the regulator has to carefully consider coupon distribution and a public hearing because it may create a legal backlash if it ignores some critical issues.

He said the public hearing will put off the coupon distribution and its delay will hurt the official broadcast of 24 digital TV channels.

Many consumers will not buy digital TV set-top boxes until they get the coupon, meaning they cannot watch new channels, he said.

The coupon can be used to buy a digital TV set-top box or a satellite or cable TV set-top box. Consumers can also use it for pay-TV subscriptions fees or towards buying a new TV.

NBTC plans to distribute coupons to 22 million households in late July to correspond with its master plan, which wants to kick off the official broadcast of all 24 digital TV channels in August.

The 24 new digital TV channels have been on broadcast trials since April.

The set-top-box for terrestrial digital TV will help viewers to experience clearer pictures under the digital TV broadcasting standard.

The coupon subsidy will come from the NBTC’s fund that received more than 50 billion baht from the auctions of licences for the 24 channels last year.

Meanwhile, Radio and Television Profession Federation president Mrs Jamnan Siritan voiced concern over the delay of the coupon distribution, reasoning that it could hurt the operations of the 24 new channels.

She said the NBTC should outline an exact timeline to distribute subsidy coupons.

She said if it was delayed, the channel operators would find some solutions to deal with it as this means they would risk losing advertising revenues.

The federation estimated that the delay of coupon distribution to TV viewers would create losses to 24 digital TV operators of about 2.5 billion baht per month.

She said the NBTC should urge the four digital network providers to speed up their network roll-out. Network coverage will reach 50% nationwide in the first year, then 80% in the second year and 90% in the third year.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/digital-tv-subsidy-coupon-set-1000-baht/


-- Thai PBS 2014-06-06

[CTO]

The cost of the box in all I have seen is about $20, or less, so basically it's a "freEEE" box

The sale price for nearly all of them has been a little over 1000baht

[Pib]

By the time a lot of people get the coupon they will probably have bought a box already as govt continues to finalize the coupon scheme...I guess folks could go use the coupon to buy another box/a spare box. Here in Bangkok the boxes are being sold everywhere...in Makro, Lotus, Big C, electronics stores, etc., Digital TV broadcasts have already started in the Bangkok and some surrounding areas with Digital TV being phased in over the rest of the country over the next year or so...for those areas where Digital TV broadcasting has not started yet the coupon should arrive in time to be used to buy the first box versus another/spare box.

[Jeffrey346]

It will be interesting to see how they distribute the coupons.

[Emster23]

Are expats included in the coupon scheme? Or do they figure we spend our time whingeing here and don't watch Thai tv? Would these boxes work or be of any use with the local free cable at my condo? Are the local cable companies going to provide that, or is it just the big boys like True going to do it? Seems fuzzy to me....

[wump]

Isn't cable still analogue (and will be for the next 10 years)?

[AnotherOneAmerican]

I bought a Cleo box from Makro for 990bht, Tesco selling the same box for 1,250bht.

Works OK, 30 digital channels, about 6 of them HD (inc 3,5,7).

No good for expats, no English language.

Edited June 6, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[Eddy B]

I love how they explain the costs of this in the break down of management = their people making money, tax = their people making more money, insurance = another way to make money and then finally profit..............well damn its all about making money. Well isn't that a surprise!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Are expats included in the coupon scheme? Or do they figure we spend our time whingeing here and don't watch Thai tv? Would these boxes work or be of any use with the local free cable at my condo? Are the local cable companies going to provide that, or is it just the big boys like True going to do it? Seems fuzzy to me....

This stuff gets confusing for me too... But let me throw in my 2 cents of understanding here.

I gather, there are three different kinds of digital TV boxes out there: over the air, cable and satellite boxes.

--If you connect an over-the-air box/digital antenna to your TV, you'd be able to receive the over-the-air version of the digital channels -- apart from your current free cable service.

--If you just want to rely on your existing cable provider, you'll need to check with that company about how they're handling things, and on what schedule. I gather, the various cable providers (not just TrueVisions) are all being required at some point to carry the new digital channels. And in order to receive them via cable once your system starts airing them, you'll need a cable digital TV box (unless you get a new digital-tuner capable TV somewhere along the way.)

As for expats and the coupons, that's a good question. In the various articles, I haven't seen any mention of just how (or on what basis) the coupons are going to be distributed. Lots of Thais don't live where their tabien ban is listed, so I wouldn't think they're going to go that route. The government could go to residential addresses, but then what happens with vacant units, etc? You'd think there would have been some explanation of the method they're planning. But if that's been published, I haven't seen it.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Are expats included in the coupon scheme? Or do they figure we spend our time whingeing here and don't watch Thai tv? Would these boxes work or be of any use with the local free cable at my condo? Are the local cable companies going to provide that, or is it just the big boys like True going to do it? Seems fuzzy to me....

This stuff gets confusing for me too... But let me throw in my 2 cents of understanding here.

I gather, there are three different kinds of digital TV boxes out there: over the air, cable and satellite boxes.

--If you connect an over-the-air box/digital antenna to your TV, you'd be able to receive the over-the-air version of the digital channels -- apart from your current free cable service.

--If you just want to rely on your existing cable provider, you'll need to check with that company about how they're handling things, and on what schedule. I gather, the various cable providers (not just TrueVisions) are all being required at some point to carry the new digital channels. And in order to receive them via cable once your system starts airing them, you'll need a cable digital TV box (unless you get a new digital-tuner capable TV somewhere along the way.)

As for expats and the coupons, that's a good question. In the various articles, I haven't seen any mention of just how (or on what basis) the coupons are going to be distributed. Lots of Thais don't live where their tabien ban is listed, so I wouldn't think they're going to go that route. The government could go to residential addresses, but then what happens with vacant units, etc? You'd think there would have been some explanation of the method they're planning. But if that's been published, I haven't seen it.

+

Sigh!

Nothing to do with cable

Nothing to do with satellite

You need a TV aerial (indoor will do), a DVB box and an old TV (or new TV with DVB inside).

Why would an expat want one? Programs are all in Thai.

I'm guessing vouchers will be distributed to the number 1 Thai in the Blue Tabian Baan (housebook).

Edited June 6, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[Pib]

As mentioned, the digital terrestrial TV stations are already being transmitted on cable (i.e., TrueVisions, etc) and satellite (i.e., TrueVisions, free to air C/KU band, etc)...cable and satellite transmissions are already in digital format. No change in boxes in required to continue to receive those signals and whatever channels the service provider includes in his programming lineup.

The digital TV boxes being talked about only apply for "terrestrial" transmission (i.e., signal received by antennas on pole, rabbit ear antennas, etc) which is changing from analog to digital.

Maybe the distribution will be one coupon per Blue Book (House Registration Book) since the article said distribution to 22 million households which is most likely based on Book Book registrations. I expect a person who rents will be out of luck because I doubt 22 million households is housing the approx. 70 million folks in Thailand...plus renters are many times getting a cable feed from within their building. And durn farangs are rich...they can just go out and buy one

[CNXBKKMAN]

Got the mcot digi box last month for about 1200 baht in Siam TV chiang mai. I think we get nearly all the 30 channels although 3 has not fully moved over yet. Main benefit straight away is much clearer picture and some HD also. Just compared to the old style TV and aerial on your roof we get a better picture. Some freezing of frames reception issues due to weather? But I am guessing it can only get better when the majority of population changes over and more resources are thrown at it.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

As mentioned, the digital terrestrial TV stations are already being transmitted on cable (i.e., TrueVisions, etc) and satellite (i.e., TrueVisions, free to air C/KU band, etc)...cable and satellite transmissions are already in digital format. No change in boxes in required to continue to receive those signals and whatever channels the service provider includes in his programming lineup.

I think not all of the cable operators here operate in the same manner as TrueVisions with their own set-top boxes.

One example is our smaller cable TV operator here in BKK. Historically, and right now still, to be their customer, you didn't need or use any set-top box. And there are no different packages to subscribe to. You just subscribe, they plug in the cable to your home, and you get their channel lineup, period.

Perhaps that's a similar setup to the member with free apartment-provided cable whose question I was responding to.

Right now, I'm not getting any of the new digital TV channels delivered over our cable system, or perhaps the correct thing to say is, none of the digital channels are VIEWABLE with our existing setup. And, when I inquired of our cable operator, they indicated we'd have to purchase a cable set-top box to decode those channels on their system, since our existing TVs at home don't have digital tuners.

Edited June 6, 2014 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pib]

Yeap...sounds like your cable service provider is simply not including the new/digital terrestrial channels in their programing lineup, whether a box is needed or not for their service. No box needed then they are just transmitting analog signals most likely; a box required then the are most likely transmitting a digital signal of some format/encoding method just like you have different formats/encoding types for images such as jpg, pny, bmp, etc. And maybe they are not carrying the new digital channels because they would need to convert the terrestrial digital signal to the digital signal encoding they are using on their system like how TrueVisions is doing...and they may even have to enter into some type of contractal agreement to carry/rebroadcast the stations.

Sent from my Samsung S4

[Pib]

Yeap...sounds like your cable service provider is simply not including the new/digital terrestrial channels in their programing lineup, whether a box is needed or not for their service. No box needed then they are just transmitting analog signals most likely; a box required then the are most likely transmitting a digital signal of some format/encoding method just like you have different formats/encoding types for images such as jpg, pny, bmp, etc. And maybe they are not carrying the new digital channels because they would need to convert the terrestrial digital signal to the digital signal encoding they are using on their system like how TrueVisions is doing...and they may even have to enter into some type of contractal agreement to carry/rebroadcast the stations.

Sent from my Samsung S4

[Charlie]

My 4 years old Sony TV has a Digital Tuner.

My TV has both analog and digital tuner.

I tried to do some Digital scanning in my Sony TV,

but it showed no results.

My aerial is connected to the common condo plug.

My question is this.

Is the condo common antenna not compatible to the digital signals ?

Or I just have to buy a portable digital antenna or buy the set-up-box ?

Your kind advice is much appreciated.

Thanking you all in advance