Only 800,000 coupons are exchanged for set-top boxes

[Lite Beer]

Only 800,000 coupons are exchanged for set-top boxes

BANGKOK; -- Only 800,000 out of 4.6 million digital TV coupons distributed to households have been used to buy set-top boxes, said Mr Thakorn Tanthasit, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, today (Friday).

He further said that 700,000 coupons could not be delivered because there were no receivers but Thailand Post, the delivery service provider, would try to deliver them again.

He asked houseowners or other people of the 700,000 households to stay home this weekend to wait for the delivery of the coupons. But if the coupons cannot be delivered again because there are no receivers, they will be kept at the post offices at each districts until next May so that they can be claimed, he added.

For the second phase delivery which involves 4.1 million households, delivery will start on November 28 to 100 districts in 21 provinces digital TV networks are available.

Source: http://englishnews.t...-set-top-boxes/

-- Thai PBS 2014-11-07

[Beetlejuice]

This does not not surprise me, considering that this is 20 odd year old technology and many new TVs already come with built in digital TV receivers, plus the info regarding where the signals can be received and what channels are available on the system has been practically non existent.

[doctorproc156]

Total waste of money. Funds should be spent bringing high speed internet access to all areas, even the most rural. Hardly anyone I know even watches TV anymore.

[fxe1200]

Tried to obtain such a box. Went to the post office with passport, drivers license, yellow tabien baan. Everthing went fine, received my coupon, to be presented at Big C Extra. Next day I went to Big C Extra. They demanded the drivers license and also the tabien baan. Went home to picked up the papers, and the presented my papers and the coupon again at Big C Extra. They did not accept the tabien baan, and wanted some papers from my Landlord. I decided not to waste more time and kilometres on that digital box and left the kindergarten.

[JOC]

Total waste of money. Funds should be spent bringing high speed internet access to all areas, even the most rural. Hardly anyone I know even watches TV anymore.

Then you don't know many Thais!!

[tartempion]

My gf came home with her box yesterday.

We have 2 TV's connected to a satellite dish.

She told the (useless) box is for in case we would install A Third TV, eg in our girl's room some day....yeah, I got that, any modern TV set doesn't need this box....

[johng]

This does not not surprise me, considering that this is 20 odd year old technology and many new TVs already come with built in digital TV receivers, plus the info regarding where the signals can be received and what channels are available on the system has been practically non existent.

Agree totaly about the lack of info on transmitter sites, power and coverage areas, channel packages etc

I did find once a site with quite a lot of info for Khon Khean but it was a "radio amateur" site not official government,

and no good for me living in Chonburi province

Untill very ( 2014 ) recently the TV's sold in Thailand did not have a digital tuner ( DVB T or DVB T2 Thailand will use T2 ) so most Thais will need one of these "converter" boxes to view terestrial TV...there is no need to go out and buy a new TV if you use one of these boxes.

I've seen quite a few of these "converter boxes" for sale in Big C and Tesco etc but none have a working display setup

to play with.

At the moment they are broadcasting both analogue and digital signals but soon ( I think they said just a couple of years )

they will turn off the old terestrial analogue tv signals so its a good idea to get a converter box especially if the government is subsidising them.

[Tony125]

Maybe only a few coupons have been redeemed because the people have True View lines or satilite or cable so don't need the boxes

[retell]

Never got ours , ! Always someone at home or the mailman just drops it in the postbox

[MadMac]

Who do they send the coupons to? Thought every household? Haven't received anything...

[kkerry]

There was a man on a motorcycle delivering envelopes to everyone in our soi. He had a list for everyone to sign to acknowledge receipt. We use a local cable service which while good in having a range of international channels doesn't have the best picture quality, so my wife got a 690 baht STB at Big C to use with our largest screen tv. Much improved picture quality for local Thai channels.

[retell]

There was a man on a motorcycle delivering envelopes to everyone in our soi. He had a list for everyone to sign to acknowledge receipt. We use a local cable service which while good in having a range of international channels doesn't have the best picture quality, so my wife got a 690 baht STB at Big C to use with our largest screen tv. Much improved picture quality for local Thai channels.

I'm happy for you

[MaiChai]

You can buy them in Big C/Tesco for about 640 baht without a coupon. In Bangkok they have stacks of them in the shops. Whats the point of the coupons?

We noticed 4/5 channels have a test card and not much radio. For a foreigner its all Thai content and no English language so it doesn't offer us much. Imho stick with your satelite/cable.

One other thing; when i was setting ours up every channel had the same government broadcast telling us how well they were doing! It you had satellite /cable you would not need to watch that and could switch over to a foreign channel.

[MaiChai]

Other thing crossed my mind: Thailand is implementing this when the rest of the modern world is switching to internet and on demand broadcasting. Seems a very late catchup technology wise?

[retell]

You can buy them in Big C/Tesco for about 640 baht without a coupon. In Bangkok they have stacks of them in the shops. Whats the point of the coupons?

We noticed 4/5 channels have a test card and not much radio. For a foreigner its all Thai content and no English language so it doesn't offer us much. Imho stick with your satelite/cable.

One other thing; when i was setting ours up every channel had the same government broadcast telling us how well they were doing! It you had satellite /cable you would not need to watch that and could switch over to a foreign channel.

Some of us might be living with a Thai spouse ?

Internet TV 5555 not with that tiny little bit bandwidth I get when streaming from Europe , till Singapore its 12 Mb as promised , after that 2 at the max