Published on October 18, 2005
Nation Broadcasting Corpora-tion Ltd, operator of Nation Channel television, yesterday signed an agreement with four major partners – the Thailand Cable TV Association, Shin Broadband Internet (Thailand) Co Ltd, Asia Global Broadcasting Co Ltd and MediaCast Co Ltd – to set up “Thailand Cable Network” (TLC), a television station that will broadcast provincial news via local cable-TV channels.
To be officially launched on November 1, the TLC station will be set up as a centre for provincial news supplied by cable TV operators throughout the Kingdom. The station will become Thailand’s CNN, the US-based news channel originally set up to report news from all states within the United States.
A key partner of the TLC project is the Thailand Cable TV Association, which has more than 400 members around the country. Under the agreement, the Thailand Cable TV Association’s members in the provinces will report and supply provincial news to the TLC station. Shin Broadband Internet (Thailand) Ltd will up-link the content through its “Satellite News Gathering” (SNG) system. With the SNG system, all provincial cable TV operators will beam their programmes via the iPSTAR broadband satellite to Nation Broadcasting headquarters on Bangna-Trad Road, which will mix and manage the material. The company will transmit programmes, consisting of material from all provinces, back to the cable operators through the ST-1 Satellite for broadcasting. “There are currently between 20 and 30 cable TV operators, particularly in Chon Buri, Chanthaburi, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Sawan, Chiang Mai, Tak, Hat Yai, Phetchaburi, and Ratchaburi who are able to create their own TV programmes and supply that material to the TLC station, since they are producing programmes broadcast in their own provinces,” said Bumroong Wasontakorn, president of the Thailand Cable TV Association, which has about 250 members who are provincial cable TV operators. He said that with the assistance of Nation Broadcasting, cable TV operators in other provinces would be trained to create their own news and other interesting programmes that reflect their culture and way of life. “Under the TLC project, we aim at increase the number of viewers of the provincial cable TV network from the current two million to about 10 million in the next 12 months,” said Bumroong. He added that about 80 per cent of the programme content at TLC channel would be hard and soft news. He added that a new company, named “TLC Holding Co Ltd”, had been recently established with Bt10 million in registered capital and 63 shareholders, who are local cable TV operators. TLC Holding Co Ltd has been set up to manage the TLC station, which in the future will be split into different channels to broadcast different programmes. Adisak Limprungpatanakij, president of Nation Broadcasting, said that existing free TV stations provide very little space for provincial news, particularly during prime time. “Nation Broadcasting has been established for five years and operates Nation Channel as a 24-hour news station. One of our missions is to be effective in gathering provincial news from all around the country to be viewed by a mass audience,” he said. Adisak said Nation Channel believes provincial people are keen for more news and other programmes that reflect their cultures and use their dialects. With strong support from provincial cable operators, the TLC project will gather news content from every province to be broadcast and viewed by subscribers of the provincial cable TV network throughout the Kingdom. The Nation Channel itself has a strong news reporting network with editorial offices in Chiang Mai, Hat Yai and Khon Kaen, Adisak said. MediaCast Co Ltd will provide technical support for the picture and sound systems as well as organising live and recorded programmes. Asia Global Broadcasting (AGB) Co Ltd, which currently distributes programmes on eight different channels including the Nation TV news station to provincial cable TV operators, will also distribute provincial news to the provincial cable TV network. Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn The Nation
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