People to pay more for digital TV

BANGKOK, September 6 (TNA) - Low income television sets' owners will face more burden, as they need to pay more money for buying terrestrial antennas to enable them to receive better signals after television stations in Thailand all switch to the digital system, from the current analog system, in the foreseeable future. Jamnan Siritan, Chairman of Thailand's Radio-Television Broadcasting Professionals Federation made the warning on Saturday, explaining that the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has given the green light to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to distribute coupons, worth 690 baht each, to TV sets' owners so that they can buy a digital TV set-top box or a satellite or cable TV set-top box, but the 690-baht coupon is less than 1,000 baht asked earlier by her federation. Jamnan cautioned that chaos is possible, as TV sets' owners will have to buy small-sized terrestrial antennas, priced 300-500 baht each, to enable them to pick up better signals and more problems are expected consequently. Jamnan told journalists that the NBTC may, therefore, have to pay compensation or extra money to TV sets' owners so that they can buy the terrestrial antennas and may have to also launch PR campaigns to create understanding among the public on how to properly install the antennas when the digital TV is fully launched. Meanwhile, Wannee Rattanaphon, President of the Media Agency Association of Thailand (MAAT) projected that revenues from advertisement for the country's television, radio and printed media in 2014 should sustain growth of about 6 per cent, equivalent to 130 billion baht. (TNA)