Truevisions encyclopedia topics

History

Origin of TrueVisions

On April 17, 1989, the Mass Communication Organisation of Thailand (MCOT) and UBC (which was then International Broadcasting Corporation Public Company Limited or IBC) entered a joint venture agreement for the provision of subscription television service that was subsequently amended on May 19, 1994 and April 17, 1998, or the UBC Concession. Under the UBC Concession, UBC is permitted to operate subscription television on behalf of MCOT until September 30, 2014. UBC is entitled to provide subscription television pursuant to the UBC Concession to the whole of Thailand using a satellite to provide direct-to-home service, cable in the provincial areas and MMDS as permitted by the Post and Telegraph Department, and is entitled to use a satellite to provide service to hubs in provincial areas and then, through local cable networks, on to subscribers.

IBC launched South East Asia’s first subscriber-based television network in Bangkok in October 1989 using an MMDS transmission platform. IBC was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on February 3, 1994 with a registered share capital of Baht 180 million. IBC began serving viewers in major cities in all areas of Thailand in 1994 by transmitting programs using Thaicom 1 satellite. The satellite was used to relay signals to MMDS transmitters in the provinces. In 1995, IBC launched its DStv service using Ku-band transmission and MPEGII video compression. This enabled IBC to increase the number of channels being offered, improve sound and picture quality and distribute its service everywhere in Thailand. These services are now transmitted on the newer and more powerful Thaicom 5.

On July 1, 1998, IBC merged with UTV (below) to form UBC.

Origin of TrueVisions Cable

On November 12, 1993, MCOT and TelecomAsia entered into a memorandum of agreement for a joint venture for the provision of cable television services. Pursuant to its terms, TelecomAsia agreed to set up a public company to operate a cable television business. On June 6, 1994, MCOT and UBC Cable (formerly UTV Cable Network Public Company Limited or UTV) entered into a contract for the joint operation of subscription television services, or the UBC Cable Concession. UBC Cable is permitted to operate subscription television on behalf of MCOT until December 31, 2019. UBC Cable is entitled to provide subscription television pursuant to the UBC Cable Concession in Bangkok and elsewhere.

UTV began providing its CATV service in Bangkok Metropolitan Areas in September 1995. The service was offered on its high quality hybrid fiber coaxial network which it began deploying in 1994. The cable technology allowed for a number of channels to be offered, with high quality sound and picture and allowed for value added services such as pay per view. By 1997 hybrid fiber coaxial cable network passed an estimated 800,000 homes. In 1997 UTV sold the cable infrastructure component of its business to its sister company Asia Multimedia Company Limited allowing UTV to focus on content and subscriber management service delivery. UTV would merge with IBC in 1998.

Number of Subscribers

As of 2nd quarter of 2008: 659,227 subscribers (1,179,196 subscribers including FreeView).

Number of subscribers

exclude TrueLife FreeView

Year	Subscribers
1998	301,309
1999	324,537
2000	380,956
2001	406,589
2002	437,845
2003	434,815
2004	457,542
2005	483,816
2006	558,860
2007	618,228

List of channels on TrueVisions

TrueVisions currently runs its own created channels as well as operating regional (either Southeast Asia or Asia Pacific) channels with channel identification number.

EPG No.	EPG Name	Channel Name	Channel Type	Availiblity	Notes
1	CH-3	Channel 3	Free TV		Owned by MCOT and operated by Bangkok Entertainment Co. Ltd.
2	CH-5	Channel 5	Free TV		Owned and operated by the Royal Thai Army
3	CH-7	Channel 7	Free TV		Owned by the Royal Thai Army and operated by the Bangkok Broadcasting & Television Company (BBTV) under contract
4	CH-9	Channel 9	Free TV		Owned and operated by MCOT
5	NBT	NBT (National Broadcasting Services of Thailand)	Free TV		National Public service broadcaster; owned and operated by the government's Public Relations Department (PRD)
6	TPBS	TPBS (Thai Public Broadcasting Service)	Free TV		a public television station in Thailand ,mass media that have to is free from politics interferes of Thailand
7	TNN	TNN	News	Free-to-view	previously News 24
8	TNN2	TNN 2	Special	Free-to-view	previously MCOT Democratic News Service Channel
10	SMES	SMEs Shop Channel	Shopping	Free-to-view
11	FL A	True Film Asia	Movies	Free-to-view	Full-length Asian movies and series
12	MOVH	True Movie Hits	Movies	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	Thai-dubbed Hollywood movies (also available in English)
13	HBO	HBO	Movies	Gold, Platinum
14	CINM	Cinemax	Movies	Silver, Gold, Platinum
15	STMV	Star Movies	Movies	Gold, Platinum
16	HALL	Hallmark Channel	Movies	Gold, Platinum
17	AFMV	Academy Fantasia Music Video	Music Videos	Free-to-view
19	insE	True Inside	Entertainment	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	The "Behind the Scene" channel that offers scenes from the producers or anything related to Thai celebrities. This channel, however, also airs American programs such as Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight and even America's Next Top Model
20	XZYT	True X-Zyte	Entertainment	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	Miscellaneous programs such as Maximum Exposure, COPS, TV Champion, etc
21	SRES	True Series	Series	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	Series and reality shows from around the world. For example; Prison Break, ER, Survivor, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, etc.
22	ASER	True Asian Series	Asian Series	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	New Channel
23	H-Ha	Hay-Ha	Thai Style Comedy	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	New Channel
26	GSQ	G Square	Entertainment	Free-to-view	The first Video games and technologies channel in Thailand. Half of the programme is produced locally and another half was imported from G4
27	CHIC	Chic Channel	Entertainment	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	a local fashion channel affiliated and sponsored by Fashion TV
28	AXN	AXN	Entertainment	Gold, Platinum	Hong Kong and Thailand
29	TMUS	True Music	Music	Free-to-view	An interactive music channel that plays only most voted videos. A vote is cast by an SMS.
30	MA	Majung TV	Music	Free-to-view	A channel that plays Thai music videos from the 60's - 90's.
31	LTNG	T Channel	Music	Free-to-view	Thai Country Music
32	CH-V	Channel V Thailand	Music	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	24hr. Music Televisons
33	MTV	MTV Thailand	Music	Gold, Platinum
34	MGM	MGM	Movies	Silver, Platinum
35	TCM	TCM	Movies	Silver, Platinum
36	E!	E!	Entertainment	Silver, Platinum
37	SWLD	Star World	Entertainment	Silver, Platinum
38	BBCE	BBC Entertainment	Entertainment	Silver, Platinum
39	TVB	TVB Xinghe	Entertainment	Silver, Platinum
40	AMAX	Animax	Animation	Silver, Platinum
41	NGAV	Nat Geo Adventure	Documentary	Silver, Platinum	formerly known as A1
42	STC	STC	Music	Silver, Platinum
43	SPRK	True Spark	Kids	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum
44	TCCN	Cartoon Network	Cartoon	Gold, Platinum	A cartoon channel for kids.
45	EXP1	True Explore 1	Documentary	Free-to-view
46	EXP2	True Explore 2	Documentary	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum
47	EXP3	True Explore 3	Documentary	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum
48	HIST	The History Channel	Documentary	Silver, Gold, Platinum	formerly known as History Channel Thailand
49	NGC	National Geographic Channel	Documentary	Gold, Platinum
50	DSCV	Discovery Channel	Documentary	Gold, Platinum
51	ANPL	Animal Planet	Documentary	Gold, Platinum
52	CNN	CNN International	News	Gold, Platinum
53	BBC	BBC World News	News	Gold, Platinum
54	CNBC	CNBC Asia	News	Gold, Platinum
55	BMBG	Bloomberg Television	News	Silver, Gold, Platinum
56	NHK	NHK World	Special	A La Carte (Gold, Platinum)
57	CCTV	CCTV 4	Special	Knowledge, Gold, Platinum
58	TV5	TV5 Monde Asie	Special	Knowledge, Gold, Platinum
59	TSP1	True Sport 1	Sport	Gold, Platinum	True Visions has decided to rearrange all the programming of all its existing channels to accommodate the demand of subscribers. Those channels are SuperSport, SuperSport Action, True Zoccer and True Sport Plus. True Sport 1 has the same programming as True Zoccer.
60	TSP2	True Sport 2	Sports	Knowledge, Silver, Gold, Platinum	focuses on all kinds of martial arts, wrestling (including WWE shows) and fighting sports.
61	TSP3	True Sport 3	Sport	Gold, Platinum	focuses on extreme sports, water sports, and some ball sports (excluding those air on True Sport 4)
62	TSP4	True Sport 4	Sport	Gold, Platinum	focuses on golf, tennis, billiards, polo, etc.
63	TSP5	True Sport 5	Sport	Gold, Platinum ,Premier League package	English Premier League
64	ESPN	ESPN	Sport	Gold, Platinum
65	SPRT	Star Sports	Sport	Gold, Platinum
66	TSE1	True Sport Extra 1	Sport	Platinum
67	TSE2	True Sport Extra 2	Sport	Platinum
68	HBOS	HBO Signature	Movies	A La Carte (Gold, Platinum)
69	HBOF	HBO Family	Movies	A La Carte (Gold, Platinum)
70	HBOH	HBO Hits	Movies	A La Carte (Gold, Platinum)
71	DSci	Discovery Science	Documentary	A La Carte (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
72	D RT	Discovery Turbo	Documentary	A La Carte (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
73	D TL	Discovery Travel & Living	Documentary	A La Carte (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
74	D HH	Discovery Home & Health	Documentary	A La Carte (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
75	Disn	Disney Channel Asia	Kids	A La Carte (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
76	DisP	Playhouse Disney Channel	Kids	A La Carte (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
78	MCT1	MCOT 1	Other
79	MCT2	MCOT 2	Other		Classic Entertainment Channel
80	MONY	Money Channel	News		Operated by the Stock Exchange of Thailand Trading Company
81-95	DLTV1-DLTV15	DLTV 1-15 (Distance Learning Television)	Education		Broadcasted from Wang Klai kang won School Hua-Hin (Klai kang won palace School) Operated by Distance Learning Foundation (DLF) under Royal Pratonage
96	ETV	ETV	Education		Education Television Operated by Minister of Education of Thailand
97	TGN	TGN (Thai TV Global Network)	Other		Operated by the Royal Thai Army Television
99	PREV	TrueVisions Preview	Special	Free-to-view	HD signal, however the current set-top box models are not supported
104	TATV	TATV	Other		Operated by Tourism Agency of Thailand (TAT)
105	RATV	Royal TV	Other
106	RS106	AD HOC 1 (Premier League)	Special
107	RS107	AD HOC 2 (Premier League)	Special
109	PPV1	Pay Per View 1	Special
110	PPV2	Pay Per View 2	Special

Seasonal Channels provided by TrueVisions

World Series Cricket Channel
The Tri Nations Channel

€*Academy Fantasia Channel or AF Channel (Created and Produced by TrueVisions)

Big Brother Thailand

Discontinued channels

MTV Asia due to the establishment of MTV Thailand
MTV Thailand due to a discontinued contract between UBC and MTV (Now continued). This results as a discontinuation of VH1 Thailand, Fashion TV Thailand and Nickelodeon Thailand. However only MTV Thailand are expected to return starting May 16, 2008 at Channel 111. The other MTV sister channels yet unannounced.
Pay Per View 1 and 2 due to presence of True Sports Extra 1 and 2
HGTV Thailand
Fashion TV, replaced with Panorama Channel
Panorama Channel, a channel devoted to locally-produced documentaries
UBC Movies, replaced with UBC (later True) Inside,now succeeded by True Movie Hits
Nation Channel, local round the clock news channel, due to its move to MMDS

Return/Future Channel

A monthly magazine, which sets out the broadcasting schedules, is sent free to subscribers. Contents such as hi-lights of the month, descriptions and synopsis are presented in Thai but the schedule listing is also available in English.

Personal Video Recording System

TrueVisions is now selling the new PVR (Personal-Digital Video Recording) System, similar to TiVo. For more information, please go to TrueVisions PVR Website

High Definition Channels

As of November 12th of 2007, True Visions started to run a commercial between programs on several channels that they operate, stating that they are currently testing high definition (HD) channels and also the new set-top box system that will support both PVR and HD. They plan to launch the test run at Bangkok ICT Expo in November 2007.

Channels that they claim to be under the test run includes Barclay's Premier League HD, Discovery HD, National Geographic Channel HD, History Channel HD, and some HD programs on True Series. Even though AXN has claimed that they have filmed the Amazing Race Asia Season 2 program with High Definition cameras, they however have not broadcasted any of HD programming in South East Asia yet.