European standard for terrestrial digital TV
The government and the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commission (NBTC) will jointly announce today (24) that Thailand will adopt the European DVB-T2 standard for broadcasting terrestrial digital TV service.
The announcement will be made by NBTC chairman Thares Punsri and PM’s Office Minister Nivatthamrong Boonsongpaisal. The Cabinet on May 20 Sunday acknowledged the decision of the NBTC broadcasting committee to adopt this technology.
The move is part of the NBTC’s plan to switch Thailand’s radio and TV broadcasting industries into the digital era from analogue, starting this year with a completion target in 2016. The bidding for digital TV spectra is expected to take place next year. The change to a digital terrestrial TV system will affect 20 million households.
The NBTC broadcasting committee will join with free-TV operators to test the service.
The commission intends to make available the first three of its four classes of licences for terrestrial digital TV this year. The three licence types are for programme transmission, for rental of facilities such as broadcast towers, and for channel operators. The fourth class, for providers of application services, will be awarded later.
There will be about 50 terrestrial digital TV channels, all using ultra-high frequency (UHF), of which 10 are expected to be reserved for serving the public and the rest for commercial |operation.
