CTH receive brickbats not bouquets for EPL broadcast

Predictably, the debut of the English Premier League (EPL) broadcast by the new rights owner, CTH, received more brickbats than bouquets. Not to mention the difficulty in applying for a subscription. Some have to wait for a month or two to get a dealer or CTH itself to install a set-top box.

Currently, fans in Thailand are able to watch the entire EPL's 380 matches via CTH's set-top-box (17 live matches will be televised through Modernine TV) and the AIS Mobile Barclays Premier League app.



Surprisingly, the number of subscribers for the AIS app is far more than the rights owner, CTH. AIS revealed after the first match of the season that more than 200,000 people have registered for the app while CTH, according to its executive two weeks ago, installed only 20,000 set-top boxes out of the 700,000 who have applied for the network.

A flood of complaints poured into a Facebook page named "Doo Ball Sod CTH-Premier League" (watch live CTH-Premier League) after the first match. Although there was no statement that it was the official page of CTH, the page admin was slammed because of lack of responses to the complaints.

Most of the complaints were about the poor signal quality and sound including the lethargic attitude of the company in installing the boxes. Some fans cried foul after missing out on John Dykes, who left ESPNStar to join the Barclays Premier League Television (PLTV) as a football presenter.

"Big results spark big reactions. Arsenal's surprise 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa [on the first match] would have had the pitch side reporter begging for many questions. Sadly, bigger questions were being begged by CTH viewers as absolutely no post-match reaction was offered.

Normally exclusive rights mean full contents that include PLTV, interviews of managers before and after the matches. CTH does have game analysis and highlights by Thai presenters but it should not be forgotten that there are a sizeable number of foreign football fans living in Thailand and they need game analysis, previews, and match interviews in English.

I tried to reach CTH but there was no response. However, my source at CTH says that the PLTV will start in the next two weeks.

Read the full article at The Nation.

Rag

I hope PLTV includes the pundit panels who review/preview EPL games.

And what's going on with the audio feed. Sometimes English language broadcasts are on the 'English' audio channel and sometimes on the 'Primary' audio channel. Room for improvement methinks.

And before somebody makes the standard moronic comment of "if you don't like it go back to your own country" forget it. I'm in this country and I'm paying for a service. I reckon I'm entitled to comment on the quality of that service.

I'm watching EPL on Thai CTH

Thanks to Rag reader Terry W., I had two CTH satellite boxes installed at my home today just two days after placing the order. Looking good, bye bye Truevisions.


Sky News HD

It cost me Bt1,500 for two boxes, Bt500 for two HDMI cables and Bt250 for a cable splitter. That was it, no charge for cable and no obvious charge for labour. Could I have bought the HDMI cables and splitter cheaper elsewhere? Possibly, but the guy did such a good job I didn't quibble.

Everything's installed and I haven't paid anything yet for the channel package. On top of that, the satellite guy went to CTH Laem Chabang to pick up the CTH boxes and had them coded at the shop. I believe the coding normally happens after installation and you can wait days for the technician to turn up to do the job.

There are 274 channels, at least half of which are in Thai. No problem for me as there are more than enough English channels to keep me happy. What's the 'Men' channel all about I wonder - beautiful women sitting around in their underwear. Might be of interest if I was in Saudi but I can't see it having much value to the male population of Thailand......

So far so good. The electronic program schedules are a bit inconsistent, some listed, some not but I  can live with it. Oh and did I mention the footie......

Update: I forgot to mention the Bt1,800/- deposit I had to pay CTH on each box.

CTH and EPL cable feeds in Pattaya

I was in the CTH shop on Sukhumvit, (near Index), a few days ago and inquired about the availability of cable feeds for CTH channels in Pattaya. They advised me they only handled satellite feeds, it was a shop on South Pattaya Road that handled the cable feed installations. That's all they knew, a shop on South Pattaya Road.

Over a month ago I'd actually registered for a CTH cable feed with a Sophon shop on the corner of South Pattaya Road and Third Road. So I assumed that was the shop I still had to deal with for a cable feed. I went back there today and was advised they were no longer in partnership with CTH for cable or satellite installations. Where was my month old application I inquired. Don't know was the helpful reply.



After a bit of digging around on the Internet I found a telephone number for CTH Pattaya, (085-2460007), and phoned to check their location. Turns out the shop for CTH cable feeds is now on the corner of Soi 1, South Pattaya Road, just around the corner from the Vientiane Restaurant.

I like Treasure Hunts so this was starting to be fun........   Anyway I get to the shop only to find they will only have cable feeds in Pattaya in THREE MONTHS TIME...... MAYBE...... FFS......

As a compromise, I was told I could have a satellite feed installed in about 1 weeks time and then change that to a cable feed when the cable boxes become available for NO EXTRA CHARGE. I've a feeling satellite installations are more expensive than cable installations so I think I'm being mugged somehow..... hay ho, another day in paradise.

An existing user of CTH satellite was in the shop and said in his opinion CTH channels were much better than Truevision's for one third of the price. He also confirmed EPL matches are broadcast with English commentary and the pundit panels for previewing/reviewing games were also being broadcast, if you are in to that sort of thing.

Note 1 - the CTH shop on Sukhumvit said they could install a dish/feed in 2 days whereas the shop on South Pattaya Road said they would take 1 week. Maybe the latter was just being honest.....

Note 2 - CTH have EPL broadcast rights for 3 seasons and you have to pay 3 years monthly channel fees in advance to benefit from the promotional price of Bt599/- plus tax per month. That's approx Bt24,000. You then have to add the charges for installation of dish/box/caable. I believe you have to add Bt200 to the monthly channel fee for each additional TV you add to the feed.

Hope that helps.... clear as mud.......

CTH confirms deal with MCOT for EPL broadcasts

The head of CTH, a leading pay-TV operator, confirmed that his company has reached a sublicensing deal with MCOT to televise 17 live matches per season of the English Premier League through Modernine TV, from next month until 2016.

Modernine TV will select 17 of the 380 live matches per season of the English soccer league for broadcast.

Read the full article at The Nation.

TrueVisions launches new channel for Manchester United soccer fans

TrueVisions yesterday partnered with the Manchester United Fan Club to launch the MUTV Channel as a part of its customer-retention plan, particularly for soccer fans, before the new season of the English Premier League kicks off on arch-rival CTH.

"We are now happy with the churn rate, which is still below our estimate. We also expect that our existing subscribers who want to watch live EPL matches will opt to stay with us and buy a new set-top box provided by the EPL rights holder," said Ong-ard Prapakamol, chief commercial officer.

Rag -  think their 'churn' rate is about to rise......

Read the full article at The Nation.

Channel 9 seeks deal to broadcast English Premier League games

Mcot Plc, the broadcaster of Modernine TV, earlier announced plans to either purchase the rights from CTH for 480 million baht to broadcast 17 EPL football matches a year for three years; or pay 210 million baht to the cable TV provider for the broadcasting rights for three years with Mcot having to share 40% of the total revenue with CTH.



"This method will enable us to choose the best matches of the week to broadcast on TV Channel 9," Mr Sutham said.

Read the full article at the Bangkok Post.

English Premier League games to be broadcast in Thailand by satellite and cable

Kasem Inkaew, a member of CTH's executive committee, said that the company had rented transponders from VNA-Sat, the Vietnam-based satellite provider, to transmit its signal for 125 channels to subscribers in the Kingdom.

CTH will sell its own satellite-TV receivers, which include turquoise KU-band dishes, and set-top boxes. The receivers will be sold by more than 200 local cable operators in Thailand and will be in stock later this month.

Customers will have to pay Bt999 for a satellite-TV receiver, while cable-TV viewers who are not CTH subscribers, must pay a Bt1,800 deposit for a digital set-top box.

To watch the company's pay-TV channels, customers must subscribe to one of the following packages; Bt199 for 79 channels; Bt299 for 107 channels; Bt399 for 120 channels; and Bt899 for 120 channels plus high-definition channels and five EPL channels also in HD. If you click on the link to the CTH website they appear to be running a promotion of Bt599 per month for the first year if you sign up by 31 August but I'm not sure if that's for the package with EPL.

Rag - If I've read it correctly after my one time expense for satellite TV receiver(s), I will pay at most Bt899 per month for over 120 channels plus 5 EPL channels. Sounds a deal to me. Of course, I may need a digital set top box for each TV in the house and I'm assuming I only have to pay for the channels once and not for once for each TV..... CTH are scheduled to officially announce their service in the next few days so hopefully  things will be a lot clearer then.  

If you click on the hotlink to check out the 120 channels watch out for the hard to see right scrolling arrow at the right end of each channel category. Has to be clicked to view all channels in that category.

One final thought. Will Sophon add their own Pattaya channels to the channels offered by CTH or will they be an extra?

CTH to announce package details for English Premier League broadcasts

On June 16, CTH will announce details of it's package for viewing next season's English Premier League broadcasts over cable networks.

CTH also announced yesterday that they had agreed to carry 24 of Fox's channels on its pay-TV platform, starting from next month. Among the channels covered by the deal are: Nat Geo Adventure HD, Nat Geo Wild HD, Nat Geo Music, Fox Action Movies, Star Chinese Movie, Channel M, Fox Thai, Fox Crime, FX HD, Starworld, Fox Sports News, Channel V HD, Fox News, Sky News HD and Baby TV.

Sophon Cable in Pattaya have confirmed that a new set top box will be required to view the matches but that's all they know for the moment. I was advised to call back to the Sophon office in 2 months time for more details.......... that's just about when the EPL season kicks off. 

TrueVisons Thailand launches new Knowledge and Supersports packages

TrueVisons have launched two new packages: Knowledge, with 88 channels at Bt590 per month, and Super Sport with 95 channels at Bt495 per month. Looking at the channels on offer I would say these packages are for the Thai market. 

Truevisions are targeting 100,000 new subscribers for each package. I suspect many of the 'new' subscribers will actually be existing Gold and Premium package subscribers downsizing now that English Premier League, (EPL), broadcasts are on the rival CTH network. It looks like TrueVisions are trying to lock-in their Thai customer base before CTH launch their rival 140 channel service, plus EPL games, on 21st June.

TrueVisions clearly feeling the heat.

Update on English Premier League Broadcasts in Thailand

CTH won EPL broadcasting rights for the three seasons starting this August, beating the existing rights holder TrueVisions.

It has reserved five channels for EPL content, Channel 1 for live matches and reruns, Channel 2 for coverage of international EPL activities, Channel 3 for EPL events in Thailand, Channel 4 for a variety of content such as player and fan profiles and Channel 5 for inside news.

Moreover, CTH has formed partnerships with three free channels, BEC World's channel 3, channel 7 and Modernine TV  to broadcast 17 EPL matches live each season.

Read the full article at the Bangkok Post.

Rag - What's not clear from the announcement that there will be only one channel for live games is will we be able to select (stream) the match we want to watch on that channel or will CTH broadcast only one live game on that channel?

What price English Premier League broadcasts in Thailand?

TrueVisions' rights to broadcast EPL games in Thailand will end this month. The rights to broadcast games for the next three seasons have gone to Cable Thai Holdings, (CTH), a Bangkok based cable TV company.

The obvious question for those of us living in the provinces is how a Bangkok based cable TV company will broadcast EPL games to the rest of the country. 

The Bangkok Post suggested as recently as March 2013 that TrueVisions were attempting to sub lease broadcast rights from CTH but in today's Nation, CTH suggest they are trying to connect cable TV operators in 77 provinces in to one network.    

CTH Chairman, Wichai, refused to unveil the subscription fees for the EPL package or the price for its set-top box, only saying that the fee would be cheaper than that of the current rights holder. "The fee [for the full package] will be less than Bt1,000. It will depend on the number of subscribers. The more the number of subscribers, the less the fees," he said.

CTH's new digital set-top box will function as a three-in-one tool, enabling subscribers to watch television, use it as an Internet router, and as a tool for interactive participation - so-called social TV. The full phase will be completed by next year. It plans to increase its current 16 channels to 120 channels next year.

In the short term, it looks like EPL broadcasts could be available from sub lease broadcasters and local cable providers like Sophon, who will add Bt1,000 to their monthly fees. In the longer term, the unified cable network won't need sub lessee broadcasters and TrueVisions will face a significant challenges from a cable network offering almost unlimited Internet TV content from around the world.    

Two questions spring to mind and they are:

1. If Truevisions fail to win sub lease broadcast rights for EPL games will they drop their fees Bt1,000/-?

2. If I currently have Sophon connected to three TVs, will I need three CTH set top boxes to watch different Sophon channels on each TV. 

Of course it would be really good if CTH/Sophon could find the time to let us know what we have to do to get EPL 2013/14 broadcasts at home and in bars. Just three months to go and the clocks ticking.......

TrueVisions' Channel changes leave cloudy picture

On Friday, May 3rd, I received a letter in English and Thai from TrueVisions containing information about the channel changes taking place on April 19th....

Now it's hard to know if the late delivery of the letter was due to TrueVisions inefficiency or the back log of mail that probably built up at the Post Office over Songkran. That said, TrueVisions have no excuses as they knew it was Songkran and should have taken the necessary steps to get the letters out before the holiday shutdown.

For those of you that haven't seen TrueVisions letter, the opening para makes interesting reading.

Quote:

To express our sincere appreciation for your support and continued trust, as well as to enhance your entertainment, especially for Premier League fans, which TrueVisions will broadcast until this coming May, TrueVisions would like to inform you that from April 19th onward, Truevisions is bringing these additional world class entertainment programs to you for free.....

:Unquote

No mention is made of channels dropped like Star World and it's quite possible that the Star World programs are available on a new channel but it's impossible to tell if that's the case from the letter or it's attachments.

Also, over the years, TrueVisions have lost broadcast rights for FA Cup games, Euro Champions Cup games, Spanish league games and now EPL games. All we know is TrueVision EPL broadcasts end in May. That's alright then........

EPL broadcasts could quite easily have been the jewel in TrueVisions crown. Brits, bars and Thais probably subscribed for this key service and without it TrueVisions looks far less attractive. After all, most of TrueVisions remaining channels can be streamed over the Internet, (so long as you are not using True Internet). Yes, some streaming services are subscription based but you can get a whole host of top class channels for what TrueVisions charge for a Gold package on two TVs.

Also let's not forget the local cable networks. What happens to TrueVisions if the cable networks add more international channels? Must be worrying times for TrueVisions.

I've scanned the new TrueVision channel listing and you can view a copy by clicking on the link. For those who haven't seen it, Channels 120 - 156 are home to many new or HD upgraded channels.