BANGKOK, Feb 4 — Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) reported that digital television in the kingdom attracts 14.5 million viewers, with its average commercial airtime fee rising to Bt50,000 per minute.
Channel 7 still has the biggest audience portion.
The fifth lot of 517,463 digital TV set-top box coupons is about to be distributed in Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, Nan, Phetchabun, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Prachuap Khiri Khan and Lampang provinces where digital TV signals cover at least 80 per cent of their areas.
NBTC plans to distribute all 13.4 million coupons to raise the number of digital TV viewers to about 20 million within this year.
NBTC Secretary-General Takorn Tantasith said the distribution of free digital TV set-top box coupons raised the percentage of viewers watching Thailand's 21 digital TV channels from 7 to 24, totaling 14.5 million people.
The increase happened in the past ten months after the introduction of ditigal TV in the country last April. Of the viewers, 6-7 million watch digital TV through set-top boxes and 8-9 million use satellite or are cable-based.
NBTC has distributed 7.7 million set-top box coupons and half of them, 3.57 million coupons, have reached end-users.
The commission earlier planned 70 per cent of coupons to have reached viewers by now.
Commercials on digital TV has risen by 40 per cent, with commercial airtime fees via analog TV dropping by 4-5 per cent.
The average commercial airtime fee on digital TV has risen from less than Bt10,000 to Bt50,000 per minute. (MCOT online news)
