Digital TV plan calls for 41 new stations
Future plans for digital terrestrial television broadcasting will require investment in at least 41 new main broadcasting stations to cover all areas in the country, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said.
Last week, the NBTC presented a draft of regulations related to the transformation from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting for key TV and radio broadcasters and related businesses.
The draft included the plan to transition from analogue terrestrial TV and radio broadcasting to digital; and technical standards for broadcasting systems and set-top boxes for digital TV.
Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the NBTC’s broadcast committee, said the NBTC plans to grant operating licences for digital terrestrial TV infrastructure and network providers – and licences for broadcasting terrestrial TV for public use – by the end of this year.
In this draft plan, an infrastructure investor would be responsible for building 41 new broadcasting towers for digital terrestrial TV broadcasting services throughout the country – and be able to add more supporting broadcasting towers if required.
Technically, each main broadcasting tower must handle up to five multiplexes or radio frequency slots. Network providers will manage these multiplexes for broadcasters at different levels: national, regional and community.
This would also allow Thailand to have up to five network providers under the radio and television frequency management plan.
However, Sura Gaintanasilp, executive vice-president at MCOT – operator of Modernine TV – called for a limited number of network providers in this process, saying there should not be more than two.
MCOT is one of the TV broadcasters keen to invest in infrastructure and provide a network for digital terrestrial TV broadcasting.
Also in the draft, NBTC endorsed a second-generation digital video terrestrial television broadcasting system (DVB-T2) as the common standard for broadcasting services for Thailand. This followed the agreement at the 11th Asean Ministers Responsible for Information (AMRI) meeting in Malaysia in March, where members jointly endorsed DVB-T2 as the common standard for a digital terrestrial broadcasting service.
Natee added that given such an agreement with over 500 million people in the region, digital TV’s set-top box prices could be slashed to be more reasonable than the current US$20 to $25 (Bt600 to Bt750) a box.
