Television in Thailand

In Thailand, television broadcasting started on 24 June, 1955 (in NTSC). Color telecasts (PAL, System B/G 625 lines) were started in 1967, and full-time color transmissions were launched in 1975. As of November 2020, there are currently 21 digital (DVB-T2) TV channels in Thailand.

History

Television was first officially introduced to Thailand on 24 June 1955 in NTSC. One of the first broadcasters of television were the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand, which was established on 10 November 1952. In the first few years, viewership was low before gradually climbing to 2000 in 1957. Later on in 1955, the Radio Communications Act, B.E. 2498 was passed. Colour telecast then started in 1967 before in 1975 full-time colour transmissions began.

Television providers

Subscription providers are available, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the program guide (EPG), video on demand (VOD), high-definition (HD), interactive television via the red button, and coverage across Thailand. Set-top boxes are generally used to receive these services.

Provider Type of service No. broadcast channels VOD HD Red button Still Operate? Transmission
Digital terrestrial Free-to-air 36 Yes Yes Yes Yes Digital terrestrial television
TrueVisions Free and Pay TV Around 200 (TV and radio) Yes Yes Yes Yes Digital satellite, Cable television and IPTV
AIS Play Free and Pay TV Around 100 Yes Yes Yes Yes IPTV
GMM Z Free (Previously include Pay TV) Around 150 Yes Yes Yes Yes Digital satellite and IPTV
PSI Free (Previously include Pay TV) Around 150 (C-band)/100 (KU-band) No Yes Yes Yes Digital satellite
IPM Free Around 100 No Yes Yes Yes Digital Satellite
Good TV Free and Pay TV Around 100 (Including 11 Paid Channels) No Yes Yes Yes Digital Satellite

Analog terrestrial television

This is currently the traditional way of receiving television in Thailand, however it has now largely been supplanted by digital providers. There are 6 channels; three of them are government public-owned by MCOT the 2 television channels terrestrial free-to-air Modernine TV and Channel 3; Channel 5 and BBTV Channel 7 are owned by Royal Thai Army; NBT and Thai PBS are fully government-owned. Analog terrestrial transmissions were scheduled to be switched off in phases as part of the digital switchover, which was expected to be completed in 2020 in line with ASEAN recommendations, however, the changeover has yet to come into effect.

Provincial television was discontinued in 1988, replaced by NBT, which has two hours of local programming in each of the provinces.

Name Network Owner Launch date Channel (BKK Analog) Channel (Digital) Broadcasting area Transmitted area Broadcasting hours Formerly known as End Analog (UTC+07:00)
Channel 3 Bangkok Entertainment Co., Ltd. Bangkok Entertainment Co., Ltd.
MCOT
26 March 1970 3 (VHF)
32 (UHF)
33 (HDTV) Bangkok Bangkok 24 hours 26 March 2020 (00:01)
Channel 5 Royal Thai Army Radio and Television Royal Thai Army 25 January 1958 5 (VHF) 5 (HDTV) Bangkok Bangkok 5:00 a.m. – Midnight (Next Day) HSATV (Channel 7) 21 June 2018 (09:29)
Channel 7 Bangkok Broadcasting & T.V. Company Limited (BBTV) Bangkok Broadcasting & T.V. Company Limited (BBTV)
Royal Thai Army
27 November 1967 7 (VHF) 35 (HDTV) Bangkok Bangkok 24 hours 17 June 2018 (00:00)
Modernine TV MCOT MCOT 24 June 1955 9 (VHF) 30 (HDTV) Bangkok Bangkok 24 hours TTV Channel 4, TTV Channel 9, MCOT Channel 9 and Modernine TV 16 July 2018 (18:30)
NBT NBT The Government Public Relations Department of the Prime Minister's Office 11 July 1988 11 (VHF) 2 (HDTV) Bangkok Bangkok 5:00 a.m. - Midnight (End of day) TVT 11 or TV (Channel) 11 16 July 2018 (00:00)
Thai PBS Thai PBS Thai Public Broadcasting Service 1 July 1996 29 (UHF) 3 (HDTV) Bangkok Bangkok 5:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m. (Next Day) ITV, TITV, TPBS, TV Thai 16 June 2018 (00:00)

Digital terrestrial television

In 2005, the Ministry of Information announced their plan to digitalize nationwide free-to-air TV broadcasts led by MCOT. Trial broadcasts were undertaken, involving one thousand households in Bangkok from December 2000 till May 2001. In December 2013, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) set up series of auction for DTTV. Four types of licenses are offered: High-Def. channel license, Standard-Def. channel license, News channel license and Youth/Family channel license. All the major operators and content owners in the industry won the bid for new licenses e.g. BEC World, Bangkok Broadcasting & T.V., GMM Grammy, Thairath Newspaper, Nation Multimedia Group, TrueVisions etc. According to the license condition, DTTV services launched since April 2014.

Bangkok public/state media terrestrial channels

Bangkok public/state media free-to-air stations include:

Name Owner Channel (Bangkok) MUX Frequency (Bangkok) Broadcasting area Transmitted area
Bangkok NBT Digital 2HD Bangkok The Government Public Relations Department of the Prime Minister's Office 2 (HDTV) PRD MUX1 CH26 (514MHz) Bangkok Bangkok
Bangkok TV 5 HD Bangkok Royal Thai Army 5 (HDTV) RTA2 MUX2 CH36 (594MHz) Bangkok Bangkok
Bangkok MCOT HD Bangkok MCOT 30 (HDTV) MCOT MUX3 CH40 (626MHz) Bangkok Bangkok
Bangkok 7 HD Bangkok Broadcasting Television Co., Ltd. 35 (HDTV) RTA2 MUX2 CH36 (594MHz) Bangkok Bangkok

Cable television

All national cable TVs in Thailand must accept by MCOT, The first provider is International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in 1989, next one is Thai Sky TV in 1991 (but off-air in 1997). Universal Television Cable Network (UTV) is the third provider in 1993. But after Asian financial crisis, UTV merged with IBC in 1998, changed its name to United Broadcasting Corporation or UBC (TrueVisions in present) and became a monopoly provider.[citation needed]

IP television (IPTV)

In contrast to Internet TV, IPTV refers to services operated and controlled by a single company, who may also control the 'Final Mile' to the consumers' premises.

Mobile television

True Move provide mobile television services for reception on third generation mobile phones. They consist of a mixture of regular channels as well as made for mobile channels with looped content. True Move H TV now offers more than 20 channels to True-H 3G subscribers who own compatible mobile phones. Yet, True is expected to roll out broadcast mobile TV services based on DVB-H in the near future.

Internet television

Television received via the Internet may be free, subscription or pay-per-view, multicast, unicast, or peer-to-peer, streamed or downloaded, and use a variety of distribution technologies. Playback is normally via a computer and broadband Internet connection, although digital media receivers or media centre computers can be used for playback on televisions, such as a computer equipped with Windows Media Center.

Popularity of terrestrial TV stations

The audience share achieved by each terrestrial channel in Thailand is shown in the first table below. The second table shows the share each channel receives of total TV advertising spending. Channel 7 is both the most popular and most commercially successful station with just under 50% of the total audience followed by Channel 3 at just under 30%. The other terrestrial stations share the remaining 20% of the TV audience between them.

Audience Share:

TV Station (Operator) 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 1H
Channel 7 42.4 41.3 42.0 44.7 45.4 43.8 47.5
Channel 3 24.5 25.6 29.5 26.8 27.7 29.5 29.0
Channel 5 8.1 7.3 6.7 7.6 8.6 8.0 6.9
Modernine TV 10.3 10.2 9.2 9.6 9.9 9.7 9.2
NBT 2.9 3.0 2.4 4.9 3.4 3.4 2.4
Thai PBS (Values shown for 2005 - 2007 is for iTV and TITV) 11.8 12.6 10.2 6.1 4.9 5.6 5.0

Market Share - Share of total TV advertising spending:

TV Station (Operator) 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 1H
Channel 7 28.0 27.4 27.7 31.0 28.0 31.0 31.7
Channel 3 20.8 22.2 22.5 28.0 28.0 27.0 27.0
Channel 5 16.5 16.0 15.9 20.0 20.0 18.0 17.7
Modernine TV 13.9 14.4 14.5 17.0 19.0 20.0 20.0
NBT 2.3 2.8 2.6 4.0 4.0 4.0 3.6
Thai PBS 18.5 17.3 16.9 0 0 0 0

Audience Share (2022):

Position Channel Share of total viewing (%)
1 Channel 7 15.6
2 Channel 3 10.8
3 Mono 29 9.1
4 Workpoint TV 6.5
5 One 31 6.3
6 Thairath TV 6.0
7 Amarin TV 5.3
8 Channel 8 3.8
9 PPTV 36 2.5
10 True4U 1.9
11 MCOT 1.8
12 GMM 25 1.6
13 TV 5 1.5
14 Thai PBS 1.4
15 NBT 0.8
16 TNN16 0.6

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-03-27 07:44 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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