Thai TV ban eases, but far from normal
June 5, 2014
By Chris Forrester
A flood of TV channels went back on air over Thailand June 4th. The number approved to re-start TV transmissions totalled 333 satellite channels, 211 pay-TV channels and 24 IPTV-supplied TV channels. All 6 main network analogue channels are also back on air.
According to National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) secretary general Takorn Tantasit, that leaves “only” 98 satellite TV channel operators waiting for approval from the NBTC and the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to resume operations. Their broadcasting future depends on whether they change their content from a heavy focus on provocative political issues and advertising with exaggerated claims of product quality, he said.
Meanwhile, 13 satellite TV channels and the digital Voice TV channel remain banned from May 22 by an NCPO order. “They will be allowed to resume their operations when the situation in Thailand gets better – and if they change their programme content to focus on non-political issues,” Colonel Pirat Banjongkhian, director of the military technology centre of the Royal Thai Army headquarters, said.
He said the NCPO would not take into consideration the ownership of Voice TV when deciding whether to allow it to resume operating.
Voice TV is owned by the highly political Shinawatra family.
On June 4, the NBTC and Pirat – as a representative of the NCPO – held a press conference on the status of all TV and radio broadcasting nationwide.
For radio broadcasting, Takorn said 7,300 radio stations were banned by the NCPO order. Out of the 7,300 radio stations, 4,300 were community radio stations and 3,000 illegal radio stations operating without licences.
Takorn said the NBTC was now considering resumption of radio issues as the next step following deals with television.
Meanwhile, a community radio group, which claims 315 community radio stations as members nationwide, June 4th submitted a letter to the NBTC to consider resuming their operations.