Promotion of digital TV faces delay
The terrestrial-based digital-TV sector appears to be facing another difficulty, now that the start of the national campaign to promote public awareness about the new broadcasting service is behind schedule.
Thakorn Tantasit, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, acknowledged yesterday that the start of the Bt63.5-million project to raise public awareness and understanding about digital-TV broadcasting would be at least two months behind the original schedule.
He explained that some details in the terms of reference needed to be revised following advice from the NBTC’s broadcasting committee last week.
"We need to amend those details and expect to complete the final terms of reference and announce invitations for potential bidders soon. The successful bidder, that will take care of the national campaign to promote digital TV, will be known about March," he said.
On a related matter, Takorn said that after four months of the digital-TV coupon-redemption programme, 2.92 million out of 7 million coupons had been redeemed by households in buying digital-TV set-top boxes and television sets with built-in digital-TV tuners.
This represents 41.5 per cent of the total number of coupons delivered to households to date.
However, these redeemed coupons do not reflect the actual number of set-top boxes that were installed and used to access digital-TV programmes, he added.
Meanwhile, the Thailand Cable TV Association (TCTA) yesterday lodged an open letter to the National Council for Peace and Order, opposing the idea that the broadcasting regulator should allow people to use their digital-TV coupons in purchasing satellite and cable set-top boxes, besides digital terrestrial-TV receivers.
Led by its president Nattachai Arksorndit, the TCTA submitted the letter to the junta via ML Panadda Diskul, minister at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Nattachai said the Bt690-coupon-per-household plan was part of the transition of the country’s broadcasting infrastructure to terrestrial-based digital-TV broadcasting.
In the letter, the association explained that about 70 per cent of 23 million households around the Kingdom were currently able to watch free-TV programmes via cable and satellite-TV receivers, while they could also access digital terrestrial-TV channels because of the NBTC’s must carry-rule that orders providers of cable and satellite platforms to carry those channels. It is not necessary, therefore, to extend such privileges to cable and satellite-TV business, the TCTA reasoned.
In fact, the value of the coupon is funded from part of the revenue generated from the NBTC’s spectrum auction for 24 digital-TV channels in late 2013, it added.
Nattachai suggested that the broadcasting regulator should maintain its principle of creating digital terrestrial-TV as a national broadcasting backbone by managing the income from the use of the spectrum for the public interest.
In response, Thakorn said his team was working on the use of the coupons for purchasing a hybrid set-top box, which can be compatible both with terrestrial and satellite/cable systems.
