NBTC adds 2.8 million homes to voucher scheme
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THE National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission board yesterday approved a scheme to give away vouchers to an additional 2.8 million households nationwide for the purchase of either a digital-TV set-top box or a television set with digital-sys
The households in question are those with no registered address or registered owner but with residents, said NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith.
Under its original plan, the watchdog would over time give away vouchers each worth Bt690 to a total of 23 million registered households. It started the distribution on October 10.
Yesterday’s decision lifts the total to 25.8 million households.
The board yesterday also agreed that vendors of digital television sets in the voucher scheme would be allowed to reduce their warranty period to one year from the original two years, following a plea from the TV manufacturers’ association.
Meanwhile, Samart Engineering – a subsidiary of Samart Corp – |has launched three new digital-TV set-top box models worth Bt690 each, in a bid to attract voucher recipients.
Watchai Vilailuck, Samart Corp’s CEO, said Samart Engineering targeted total sales of 1 million digital set-top boxes worth around Bt2 billion this year, and 2 million TV antennas worth Bt600 million.
Samart expects to secure a share of about 50 per cent of the market for TV antennas this year, and 40 per cent of the digital set-top box market, he said.
Another subsidiary, Samart I-Mobile, expects to achieve sales of around 2 million mobile phones and tablets with digital-TV tuners by year-end, having currently sold roughly 1.5 million units.
