MCOT unveils five-year strategic plan for digital TV

BANGKOK, March 30 (TNA) - MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT), a most established Thai media firm running Thai News Agency or TNA, Modernine TV and MCOT Radio Networks, has worked out a five-year strategic plan for its digital television. MCOT President Anek Permvongseni acknowledged on Friday that the five-year strategic plan, from 2013-2017, responds to a national broadcasting master plan, saying that MCOT has initially tried digital television broadcasting and the company will start expanding the experimental digital TV broadcasting to cover Bangkok and surrounding provinces with a tall antenna in Bangkok's Nong Khaem District from April 9, 2013 Anek revealed that MCOT plans to launch its digital broadcasting in both high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) systems by the end of this year, after which the services will be expanded to other 6-7 major Thai provinces, including Chiang Mai in the Thai North, Songkhla in the Thai South, as well as Khon Kaen and Nakhon Ratchasima in the Thai Northeast. According to the MCOT President, MCOT is also ready to be a network provider for digital television broadcasters, as the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) will organize an auction of digital television licenses in July 2013. The MCOT top executive announced that MCOT, together with the NBTC and local and foreign media partners, will organize the "Go Go Digital Thailand 2013" fair at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok from July 25-28, 2013 to publicly introduce digital television, and that MCOT plans to organize such the fair every 1-2 years and in the future, the fair will be as big as the Broadcast Asia fair in Singapore and the NAB Show in the United States.(TNA)