NBTC may distribute nearly 12m more digital TV vouchers
The broadcasting regulator is planning to provide an additional 11.99 million vouchers, with a total value of at least Bt150 million, to support the transition from analog to digital television, particularly for unregistered households and less privileged
The vouchers can be used towards the purchase of digital-TV receivers.
Led by Supinya Klangnarong, chairwoman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s committee on consumer rights protection, the NBTC is studying the possibility of granting more of the Bt690 coupons. A previous project gave away the vouchers to 13.8 million households.
Of the new batch of vouchers to be issued soon by the NBTC, 1.45 million will be reserved for registered households that have not yet received a coupon or those households that had trouble with the redemption process. Another 3.62 million will be prepared for newly registered households, including new home-buyers. A further 6.92 million will be allocated for unregistered households including less privileged ones, disabled and elderly people, and slum communities.
Supinya said her panel was working closely with representatives from manufacturers of digital TV receivers, providers of digital TV signal transmission, and broadcasters to ensure that these coupons will be well received and transparently redeemed for purchase of digital TV set-top boxes or integrated digital TV sets.
She hopes that all the details of the new giveaway programme will be ready by the end of next month. After that, her panel will take the matter before the NBTC’s broadcasting committee for approval before kicking off the project next year.
The estimated cost of this project is about Bt150.47 million, which would come out of the Bt15.8-billion budget to transform the country into the digital-TV era.
However, she added that this new project must be acknowledged by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, leader of the ruling junta.
Thawee Udomkitchote, senior vice president of Samart Corporation, a manufacturer of telecommunication and digital TV equipment, said the project would help his company as well as other makers of digital receivers in managing their inventory of set-top boxes.
"Currently, the number of digital-TV set-top boxes held by our members is about 4 million to 5 million. We need help from the [NBTC] in this regard," Thawee said on behalf of the club of producers of digital-TV receivers.
The club represents more than 60 Thai makers of digital-TV receivers.
