CTH in deal with pay-TV providers for live EPL broadcasts
Cable Thai Holding (CTH), which has the broadcasting rights for the English Premier League (EPL), says subscribers of TrueVisions, GMM Z, and RS set-top-box platforms can watch 17 live matches of the soccer series under the sublicence to MCOT to televise
However, subscribers of PSI and IPM satellite dishes |will not be able to watch these matches, CTH chief executive officer Kittsanan Ngampathipong said.
More than 10 million households use PSI’s dishes. TrueVisions has more than 2 million subscribers, while GMM Z has about 1 million.
Kittsanan said subscribers of TrueVisions, GMM Z, and RS would not experience the "blank screen" as they had reached an agreement with CTH on Thursday. If they have free TV channels broadcast their foreign licenced soccer matches on free TV channels, all of their subscribers, including CTH subscribers, would be able to watch these matches via their platforms, which carry free TV channels.
Other viewers who are not pay-TV subscribers can also watch these programmes on free TV channels via a conventional antenna.
Kittsanan said the agreement was aimed at benefiting consumers and was made in a way that would not violate the broadcasting rights.
The 2013-14 EPL season, totalling 380 matches, will kicked off on Saturday night tonight. CTH last year won the EPL broadcasting rights for Thailand, Cambodia and Laos for three seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
Dew Waratangtagoon, chief operating officer of GMM Trading, a satellite-TV unit of GMM Grammy, said GMM Z’s customers who had set-top boxes equipped with a conditional-access (CA) system would be able to watch Modernine TV as normal under the "must-carry" rule of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
The NBTC’s rule requires platform providers such as cable and satellite-TV operators to carry free TV programmes on their channels.
Somporn Teerarochanapong, chairman of PSI Holdings, the country’s largest manufacturer and trader of satellite-TV receivers, said yesterday that the 17 live EPL matches on Channel 9 could not be viewed on PSI boxes as the company and CTH could not reach an agreement.
