Television in Thailand
Encyclopedia
Television is by far the most popular medium in Thailand. More than 80% of Thais are estimated to rely on television as their primary source of news.
The old Thai constitution
of 1997 provides for an independent authority, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to regulate the broadcasting industry. However, owing to legal disputes surrounding the selection process for NBC commissioners, the NBC still has not yet been established. The Military junta group wrote in the current Constitution of 2007 requiring for a new agency which would combine the broadcasting regulator (NBC) with the telecommunications regulator (NTC). Article 47 of the 2007 Constitution demands the merger of the regulators to form a convergence agency. Its main functions are to handle spectrum allocation and to regulate both broadcast and telecom sectors.
By March 2008, the King signed in the new Broadcast Act which was passed by the Military junta Parliament on the last day of the last Parliamentary session in December 2007, just one day before the general election of December 23, 2007. It took more than two months for the bill to become law the delay was due to the concern by the public that the Broadcast Act was not constitutional and it created a barrier to entry to the newcomers as well as its controversial provision which guarantees people the right to provide community broadcast service. The new Broadcast Act requires that all radio and TV stations be subject to license. However, in the "provisional measures" section, the law gives ex officio license to all existing stations to operate until the new Broadcast Master Plan is adopted by the new regulator. For the time-being, Thai television channels remain under the tight control of various government agencies. The last television station which offers service was the Thai Public Broadcast Station or TPBS. TPBS was established by a special law adopted by the Military junta Parliament following the Administrative Court decision which revoked amendment to concession done by the ousted Thaksin government. The selection process for the broadcast regulator has been stopped since 1997 and the new law required by Article 47 of the Constitution is being drafted by many agencies of the Thai government.
In December 2010, the Parliament passed the new legislation replacing the old National Regulatory Agencies Act with the new National Broadcast and Telecommunication Commission Act of 2010. The new law creates a "convergence" regulator who has exclusive jurisdiction over broadcast, telecommunications and satellite. The NBTC is not as independent as the NTC in terms of policy direction, budgetary, and international matters. it is also subject to scrutiny and monitoring from different agencies such as the Executive Branch, the Senate, the Evaluation Committee and Public Auditor. The Senate is authorized to cast "no confidence" vote on either individual commissioner or vote to remove NBTC en banc.
The largest players in the Thai television industry are MCOT
, a former state enterprise of which the government still owns 77%, and the Royal Thai Army, which retained ownership of numerous broadcast frequencies even after the end of military rule
in Thailand. The only commercial station not subject to the control of MCOT
or the army was iTV
, which was taken over by Shin Corporation
, a communications conglomerate controlled by Temasek Holdings
of Singapore
. ITV ceased to exist In 2007 when the Administrative Court ruled that the concession agreement held by ITV was in violation of the Joint Venture Act of 1992. As a result the concession agreement became null and void and the station was automatically returned to Prime Minister Office. Later in 2007, the military junta Parliament introduced a legislature creating Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) and transferred all the assets and rights to radio frequency to the new TPBS. The TPBS law also exempt TPBS from past liability or debt incurred by ITV prior to cancellation of the concession agreement. TPBS is now an independent TV station with its own Charter under the sui generis law. TPBS is free from government control or influence with its guaranteed annual budget of two billion bahts carved out from "sin" tax (tax on liquor). Thailand's public service broadcaster, (NBT)Channel 11, is on the contrary funded by government budget and is operated by the Government Public Relations Department (PRD) of the Prime Minister's Office.
and are relayed to all parts of the country through repeaters. Although Thailand has experimented with digital terrestrial television
on a trial basis, the delays in establishing the NBC will likely slow the conversion from analogue to digital broadcasting technology. In December 2010, the Parliament passed the new law which would create a "convergence regulator" namely the regulator who will look after radio & TV, telecommunications and satellite services. The existing telecom regulator or NTC is entrusted with provisional power to handle the matters. It is expected that the new NBTC will be appointed in the third quarter of 2011 by the newly appointed Senate. NBTC's major responsibility is to liberalize and privatize radio and TV services in Thailand. Under the new law, NBTC is required to "recall and refarm" all the spectrum used in all sectors (telecom, radio and TV) and then "reassign" the spectrum. All of the commercial TV and radio spectrum are required by the new law to be auctioned out. In the near future, it is expected that radio and TV station in Thailand will comprise mainly of private or non government operators. It is also natural that the liberalization and privatization of AV sector will loosen censorship in Thailand and promote freedom of expression. Moreover, the privatization will bring in new firms and operators. The Broadcasting Act of 2008 requires that the commercial AV licenses shall be divided into a) national license, b) regional license and, c) local license.
providers. The largest player in the market is the TrueVisions UBC, which is controlled by the Charoen Pokphand
(CP) Group, the massive Thai business conglomerate
. TrueVisions owns concessions from MCOT
to operate CATV services in greater Bangkok
and encrypted digital satellite TV
(DSTV) services throughout the country. It began offering digital cable
in 2003. At end of 2003, TrueVisions had approximately 140,000 subscribers for its CATV service and nearly 300,000 subscribers for its DSTV service. True Visions programming is also carried in Cambodia
and Vietnam
.
Outside Bangkok
, hundreds of independent CATV providers offer services in the provinces. The PRD is technically in charge of regulating provincial cable operators, but only 78 providers have been licensed so far. More than 200 CATV operators are awaiting approval from the PRD, while another 200 operate illegally. The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia estimates that the provincial cable operators reach a total of 1.1 million subscribers.
Thai TV (TTV) holds a concession from the PRD to operate an MMDS service in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area
. TTV currently operates a free-to-air
analogue MMDS service with three channels and an encrypted digital MMDS service that offers 16 channels. Nation Multimedia Group, a Thai media conglomerate
, Channel NewsAsia
from Singapore by MediaCorp
currently owns a 12% stake in TTV. Thus, content produced by the Nation Group's Nation Channel features prominently on TTV's programming line-up.
ASTV
, owned by news operation holding Manager Media Group, is a free-to-air
satellite television
network that offers eight channels via Ku band
NSS6. Many provincial CATV providers also carry ASTV channels on their line-up.
People's Television
(PTV), owned by several former executives of the Thai Rak Thai
party operates using a similar strategy to ASTV, transmitting their programs via satellite from earth stations outside of Thailand to cable TV operators inside the kingdom. Several of the station's broadcasts were censored by the military junta.
The Broadcasting Act of 2008 provides that all the TV and radio concessions shall cease to exist upon the adoption of the Broadcast Masterplan. The concession thus revoked will be replaced by various types of license. The arduous task of drafting and adopting Broadcast Masterplan is bestowed upon the yet-to-be established National Broadcast Commission (NBC). Pending the establishment of the NBC, the Broadcasting Act of 2008, provides that the NTC acting as an interim administrative authority is empowered to issue temporary license to CATV operators. The sub Committee on Broadcasting and the NTC launched public hearing in May 2009 and planned to issue the CATV License Regulation in July of 2009.
9SAT - Expat owned company, based in Bangkok - http://www.jsat.tv/
Comsat Communications - "Satellite TV for Expats, by Expats" based in Chonburi, but serving whole Kingdom - http://www.comsat.co.th/
High-Definition Television
Thailand officially started broadcasting in HD on February 1, 2009, which was available only on TV3 and NBN free to air and during the primetime. Later, in 2010, every channels are no longer available in HD, but is available on Thai HD Receiver. Satellite HD is available since September 9, 2009 when MCOT HD is launched.
The old Thai constitution
Constitution of Thailand
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand is the supreme law of Thailand. Since the change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional democracy in 1932, Thailand has had 17 charters and constitutions, reflecting the high degree of political instability and frequency of military coups faced...
of 1997 provides for an independent authority, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), to regulate the broadcasting industry. However, owing to legal disputes surrounding the selection process for NBC commissioners, the NBC still has not yet been established. The Military junta group wrote in the current Constitution of 2007 requiring for a new agency which would combine the broadcasting regulator (NBC) with the telecommunications regulator (NTC). Article 47 of the 2007 Constitution demands the merger of the regulators to form a convergence agency. Its main functions are to handle spectrum allocation and to regulate both broadcast and telecom sectors.
By March 2008, the King signed in the new Broadcast Act which was passed by the Military junta Parliament on the last day of the last Parliamentary session in December 2007, just one day before the general election of December 23, 2007. It took more than two months for the bill to become law the delay was due to the concern by the public that the Broadcast Act was not constitutional and it created a barrier to entry to the newcomers as well as its controversial provision which guarantees people the right to provide community broadcast service. The new Broadcast Act requires that all radio and TV stations be subject to license. However, in the "provisional measures" section, the law gives ex officio license to all existing stations to operate until the new Broadcast Master Plan is adopted by the new regulator. For the time-being, Thai television channels remain under the tight control of various government agencies. The last television station which offers service was the Thai Public Broadcast Station or TPBS. TPBS was established by a special law adopted by the Military junta Parliament following the Administrative Court decision which revoked amendment to concession done by the ousted Thaksin government. The selection process for the broadcast regulator has been stopped since 1997 and the new law required by Article 47 of the Constitution is being drafted by many agencies of the Thai government.
In December 2010, the Parliament passed the new legislation replacing the old National Regulatory Agencies Act with the new National Broadcast and Telecommunication Commission Act of 2010. The new law creates a "convergence" regulator who has exclusive jurisdiction over broadcast, telecommunications and satellite. The NBTC is not as independent as the NTC in terms of policy direction, budgetary, and international matters. it is also subject to scrutiny and monitoring from different agencies such as the Executive Branch, the Senate, the Evaluation Committee and Public Auditor. The Senate is authorized to cast "no confidence" vote on either individual commissioner or vote to remove NBTC en banc.
The largest players in the Thai television industry are MCOT
MCOT
MCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai media conglomerate. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand...
, a former state enterprise of which the government still owns 77%, and the Royal Thai Army, which retained ownership of numerous broadcast frequencies even after the end of military rule
Military rule
Military rule may mean:* Militarism or militarist ideology - the ideology of government as best served when under military control* Military occupation, when a country or area is occupied after invasion.** List of military occupations...
in Thailand. The only commercial station not subject to the control of MCOT
MCOT
MCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai media conglomerate. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand...
or the army was iTV
ITV (Thailand)
iTV was a television station in Thailand, owned by ITV Public Company Limited , a unit of Shin Corporation. Thailand's first UHF channel, the station was started in 1995 when the company was granted a 30-year concession by the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office to...
, which was taken over by Shin Corporation
Shin Corporation
Shin Corporation is one of the largest conglomerates in Thailand.- History :It was founded in 1983 as Shinawatra Computer by Thaksin Shinawatra, former Prime Minister of Thailand, and took on its current name in 1999, by using the first four letters of his last name...
, a communications conglomerate controlled by Temasek Holdings
Temasek Holdings
Temasek Holdings is an investment company owned by the government of Singapore. With an international staff of 380 people, it manages a portfolio of about S$193 billion at end of March 2011, focused primarily in Asia...
of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. ITV ceased to exist In 2007 when the Administrative Court ruled that the concession agreement held by ITV was in violation of the Joint Venture Act of 1992. As a result the concession agreement became null and void and the station was automatically returned to Prime Minister Office. Later in 2007, the military junta Parliament introduced a legislature creating Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) and transferred all the assets and rights to radio frequency to the new TPBS. The TPBS law also exempt TPBS from past liability or debt incurred by ITV prior to cancellation of the concession agreement. TPBS is now an independent TV station with its own Charter under the sui generis law. TPBS is free from government control or influence with its guaranteed annual budget of two billion bahts carved out from "sin" tax (tax on liquor). Thailand's public service broadcaster, (NBT)Channel 11, is on the contrary funded by government budget and is operated by the Government Public Relations Department (PRD) of the Prime Minister's Office.
Terrestrial TV
Thailand's six terrestrial TV stations are based in BangkokBangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
and are relayed to all parts of the country through repeaters. Although Thailand has experimented with digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
on a trial basis, the delays in establishing the NBC will likely slow the conversion from analogue to digital broadcasting technology. In December 2010, the Parliament passed the new law which would create a "convergence regulator" namely the regulator who will look after radio & TV, telecommunications and satellite services. The existing telecom regulator or NTC is entrusted with provisional power to handle the matters. It is expected that the new NBTC will be appointed in the third quarter of 2011 by the newly appointed Senate. NBTC's major responsibility is to liberalize and privatize radio and TV services in Thailand. Under the new law, NBTC is required to "recall and refarm" all the spectrum used in all sectors (telecom, radio and TV) and then "reassign" the spectrum. All of the commercial TV and radio spectrum are required by the new law to be auctioned out. In the near future, it is expected that radio and TV station in Thailand will comprise mainly of private or non government operators. It is also natural that the liberalization and privatization of AV sector will loosen censorship in Thailand and promote freedom of expression. Moreover, the privatization will bring in new firms and operators. The Broadcasting Act of 2008 requires that the commercial AV licenses shall be divided into a) national license, b) regional license and, c) local license.
List of terrestrial TV stations
- Channel 3Channel 3 (Thailand)Thailand Colour Television Channel 3 is a Thailand television channel. The headquarters are located in Bangkok, Thailand. The channel was established in 1970.The owner of the channel is BEC-TERO.- Ident :-Broadcast times:...
- Owned by MCOTMCOTMCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai media conglomerate. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand...
and operated by Bangkok Entertainment Co. Ltd. (owned by BEC World Public Co. Ltd., parent company of BEC-TEROBEC-TEROBEC-TERO Entertainment Public Co. Ltd. is an entertainment conglomerate in Thailand that organizes and promotes concerts, owns record labels and produces films and television shows. It is a subsidiary of BEC World Public Co. Ltd., which also owns Bangkok Entertainment Co. Ltd., operator of Thai TV...
) under contract. - RTATV
- RTA5 - Owned and operated by the Royal Thai Army
- RTA7 - Owned by the Royal Thai Army and operated by the Bangkok Broadcasting & Television CompanyBBTV Channel 7Bangkok National Radio and Television Broadcasting Corporation Channel 7 is a Thailand television channel. The headquarters are located in Bangkok, Thailand. The channel was established in 1967 with the first live broadcast of the Miss Thailand pageant held in the Vajiravudhthanusorn event at...
(BBTV) under contract, sister channel of RTA5.
- Modernine TVModernine TVModernine TV, formerly known as MCOT Channel 9, is a Thailand television channel. The headquarters are located in Bangkok, Thailand. The channel began operation as Thai TV Channel 4 on 24 June 1955 and its the first television channel on air in Thailand....
(Channel 9) - Owned and operated by MCOTMCOTMCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai media conglomerate. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand...
. - National Broadcasting Services of ThailandNational Broadcasting Services of ThailandNational Broadcasting Services of Thailand was formed by Radio Thailand and Television of Thailand' and is a national public broadcasting state media government mass media conglomerate of radio and television services in the Kingdom of Thailand. It is owned and operated by Government's Public...
- Formerly Television of Thailand — National Public service broadcaster; owned and operated by the government's Public Relations Department (PRD). - Thai Public Broadcasting ServiceThai Public Broadcasting ServiceThe Thai Public Broadcasting Service , or, in brief, TPBS , is a public broadcasting service in Thailand. It is established by the Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act, BE 2551 , which came into force as from January 15, 2008...
- Formerly iTVITV (Thailand)iTV was a television station in Thailand, owned by ITV Public Company Limited , a unit of Shin Corporation. Thailand's first UHF channel, the station was started in 1995 when the company was granted a 30-year concession by the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office to...
owned and operated by Shin CorporationShin CorporationShin Corporation is one of the largest conglomerates in Thailand.- History :It was founded in 1983 as Shinawatra Computer by Thaksin Shinawatra, former Prime Minister of Thailand, and took on its current name in 1999, by using the first four letters of his last name...
under concession from the Prime Minister's Office. The concession was cancelled in 2007 and the station was taken over by the Public Relations Department, which renamed it Thai Independent Television (TITV). In 2008, TITV ceased operations and was transformed into TPBS. TPBS is UHF-BAND TV Station
Cable and satellite broadcasting
Aside from terrestrial television, Thailand has several CATV, MMDS and Satellite televisionSatellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
providers. The largest player in the market is the TrueVisions UBC, which is controlled by the Charoen Pokphand
Charoen Pokphand
The Charoen Pokphand Group is a transnational conglomerate that consists of three core businesses that operate in the agribusiness and food, retail and distribution, and the telecommunications industries with investment in 15 countries. Founded in 1921, the CP Group currently employs over 280,000...
(CP) Group, the massive Thai business conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
. TrueVisions owns concessions from MCOT
MCOT
MCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai media conglomerate. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand...
to operate CATV services in greater Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
and encrypted digital satellite TV
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
(DSTV) services throughout the country. It began offering digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
in 2003. At end of 2003, TrueVisions had approximately 140,000 subscribers for its CATV service and nearly 300,000 subscribers for its DSTV service. True Visions programming is also carried in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
Outside Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, hundreds of independent CATV providers offer services in the provinces. The PRD is technically in charge of regulating provincial cable operators, but only 78 providers have been licensed so far. More than 200 CATV operators are awaiting approval from the PRD, while another 200 operate illegally. The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia estimates that the provincial cable operators reach a total of 1.1 million subscribers.
Thai TV (TTV) holds a concession from the PRD to operate an MMDS service in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area
Bangkok Metropolitan Area
The Bangkok Metropolitan Region , also known as Greater Bangkok, is the urban conglomeration of Bangkok, Thailand, which includes the city and the 5 adjacent provinces of Nakhon Pathom, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon....
. TTV currently operates a free-to-air
Free-to-air
Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...
analogue MMDS service with three channels and an encrypted digital MMDS service that offers 16 channels. Nation Multimedia Group, a Thai media conglomerate
Media conglomerate
A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet...
, Channel NewsAsia
Channel NewsAsia
Channel NewsAsia is an English language pan-Asian news network based in Singapore and owned by MediaCorp. Started on 1 March 1999 based in Singapore by Television Corporation of Singapore, it was launched internationally on 12 February 2001 as the international broadcasting arm of Channel...
from Singapore by MediaCorp
MediaCorp
Media Corporation of Singapore, better known as MediaCorp, is a group of commercial media companies in Singapore, with business interests in television and radio broadcasting, interactive media, and, to a lesser extent, print publishing and film-making....
currently owns a 12% stake in TTV. Thus, content produced by the Nation Group's Nation Channel features prominently on TTV's programming line-up.
ASTV
ASTV
ASTV is an Afrikaans South African television channel, which is privately owned. The station is based at Rustenburg in South Africa and was launched on the TopTV satellite service in October 2010, to serve as a local and community Afrikaans TV channel with Christian values.-Programs:Some of the...
, owned by news operation holding Manager Media Group, is a free-to-air
Free-to-air
Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...
satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
network that offers eight channels via Ku band
Ku band
The Kμ band is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies. This symbol refers to —in other words, the band directly below the K-band...
NSS6. Many provincial CATV providers also carry ASTV channels on their line-up.
People's Television
People's Television
People's Television was a Thai satellite television station. It was established by former executives of the Thai Rak Thai party after the 2006 Thailand military coup overthrew the Thai Rak Thai-led government. It launched despite warnings from the Council for National Security, the military...
(PTV), owned by several former executives of the Thai Rak Thai
Thai Rak Thai
The Thai Rak Thai Party was a Thai political party that was officially banned on May 30, 2007, by the Constitutional Court of Thailand due to violations of electoral laws during the 2006 legislative elections. From 2001 to 2006, it was the ruling party under Prime Minister and its founder Thaksin...
party operates using a similar strategy to ASTV, transmitting their programs via satellite from earth stations outside of Thailand to cable TV operators inside the kingdom. Several of the station's broadcasts were censored by the military junta.
The Broadcasting Act of 2008 provides that all the TV and radio concessions shall cease to exist upon the adoption of the Broadcast Masterplan. The concession thus revoked will be replaced by various types of license. The arduous task of drafting and adopting Broadcast Masterplan is bestowed upon the yet-to-be established National Broadcast Commission (NBC). Pending the establishment of the NBC, the Broadcasting Act of 2008, provides that the NTC acting as an interim administrative authority is empowered to issue temporary license to CATV operators. The sub Committee on Broadcasting and the NTC launched public hearing in May 2009 and planned to issue the CATV License Regulation in July of 2009.
Independent Satellite TV installers
PSI - large Thai franchise - http://www.psi.co.th/9SAT - Expat owned company, based in Bangkok - http://www.jsat.tv/
Comsat Communications - "Satellite TV for Expats, by Expats" based in Chonburi, but serving whole Kingdom - http://www.comsat.co.th/