Thai viewers with C-band satellite dishes installed in their homes were left angry and confused yesterday after the screens of free television channels airing live World Cup matches went black without prior notice.
Copyright-owner RS Promotion later explained the blackout was mandated by Fifa for non-encrypted broadcast in Thailand.
Left clueless following after the blackout, football fans, who now make up a large proportion of television viewers in the Kingdom, scurried to their old-fashioned television sets, urgently trying to tune in the evening match between the Netherlands and Denmark.
Many called the free stations and satellite companies to complain about the problem and vent their anger.
Those watching the free channels using antennae, whose reception was intact thanks to different broadcast frequencies, had no such problem, because RS, as it explained in a statement released yesterday evening, is required to stop broadcasts of copyright-protected matches only on frequencies for C-band satellite.
In addition to having to search for antennae to hook up to viewers television sets to watch the rest of the World Cup, the problem persists for some 5 million people using the "black dishes" installed at home. The three free channels that aired the three live matches yesterday have not returned their regular programmes to C-band reception.
In its statement, RS said Fifa had usually been lenient with local broadcast copyright-owners, with encryption not strictly demanded of them.
However, the Thaicom 5 satellite has taken over operations from Thaicom 2 and now broadcasts hundreds of channels, including all free Thai channels that air World Cup matches, with a larger footprint that covers other countries in the region apart from Thailand.
A complaint was lodged with Fifa from the copyright-owner in India, which said local viewers were able watch live matches free of charge by receiving signals from Thaicom 5.