Samart sees big boost from digital TV

Samart yesterday introduced 30,000 digital TV set-top boxes, worth Bt1,155 each, produced by its subsidiary Samart Engineering, a manufacturer of television antennas and related equipment.
They are the first such devices to be certified by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
Samart president Watchai Vilailuck said Samart Engineering planned to produce 200,000 boxes this year and sell 3 million boxes next year. It expects revenue to vault from the estimated Bt300 million this year to Bt3 billion next year, mainly from the sales of equipment related to digital TV.
The NBTC plans to call the bidding for 24 digital TV channel licences soon and will give away Bt750 coupons to all 20 million households to buy set-top boxes or digital TV sets after the licence auction.
I-Sport Media, a 50:50 joint venture of Siam Sport Syndicate and Samart, has applied to bid for a standard-definition news channel.
Samart’s phone sales and multimedia content subsidiary, Samart i-Mobile, also plans to launch smartphones with built-in digital TV tuners as part of the group’s focus on the digital TV business.