Television in Thailand

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In Thailand, television broadcasting started on 24 June, 1955 (in NTSC).^[1] Color telecasts (PAL, System B/G 625 lines) were started in 1967, and full-time color transmissions were launched in 1975. As of November 2020, there are currently 21 digital (DVB-T2) TV channels in Thailand.

Television was first officially introduced to Thailand on 24 June 1955 in NTSC.^[1] One of the first broadcasters of television were the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand, which was established on 10 November 1952. In the first few years, viewership was low before gradually climbing to 2000 in 1957. Later on in 1955, the Radio Communications Act, B.E. 2498 was passed.^[2]

Television had become the largest advertising medium in Thailand by 1959, with only two stations in Bangkok serving 35,000 television sets in a population of nine million.^[3] As of 1967, Thailand had the third highest number of television sets in Southeast Asia, with little more than 250,000 sets available.^[4] Color telecasts began in 1967, and full-time color transmissions started in 1975.

Subscription providers are available, with differences in the number of channels, capabilities such as the program guide (EPG), video on demand (VOD), high-definition (HD), interactive television via the red button, and coverage across Thailand. Set-top boxes are generally used to receive these services.

Currently, the traditional way of receiving television in Thailand is through analog terrestrial television; however, it has now largely been supplanted by digital providers. There are 6 channels; three of them are government public-owned by MCOT the 2 television channels terrestrial free-to-air Modernine TV and Channel 3. Channel 5 and BBTV Channel 7 are owned by Royal Thai Army, while NBT and Thai PBS are fully government-owned. Analog terrestrial transmissions were switched off in phases as part of the digital switchover, which was completed in 2020 in line with ASEAN recommendations.

The independently run Provincial Public Relations Department Television Services were discontinued in 1988 when the National NBT TV feed from Bangkok, also operated by the Public Relations Department, became available to those provincial studios. Since then, local programming has been given a two-hour time slot each day in the schedule.

In 2005, the Ministry of Information announced their plan to digitalize nationwide free-to-air TV broadcasts led by MCOT. Trial broadcasts were undertaken, involving one thousand households in Bangkok from December 2000 till May 2001. In December 2013, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) set up aseries of auctions for DTTV. Four types of licenses are offered: High-Definition channel license, Standard-Definition channel license, News channel license, and Youth/Family channel license. All the major operators and content owners in the industry, such as BEC World, Bangkok Broadcasting & Television, GMM Grammy, Thairath Newspaper, Nation Multimedia Group, TrueVisions, etc., won the bid for new licenses. According to the license conditions, DTTV services have been launched since April 2014.

Bangkok public/state media free-to-air stations include:

The audience share achieved by each terrestrial channel in Thailand is shown in the first table below. The second table shows the share each channel receives of total TV advertising spending. Channel 7 is both the most popular and most commercially successful station with just under 50% of the total audience followed by Channel 3 at just under 30%. The other terrestrial stations share the remaining 20% of the TV audience between them.^[15]

Audience Share:^[15]

Market Share - Share of total TV advertising spending:^[15]

Audience Share (2022):

• List of television stations in Thailand
• Media of Thailand