“Since the launch of the terrestrial-based digital TV broadcasting service in the past three years, we have been witnessing the migration of audiences into the new service, particularly from incumbents of the analogue system,” Kematat Paladesh, president of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Professional Federation, said.

Also, Nielsen’s Television Audience Measurement suggested that the digital TV audience share in the first half of this year, saw new digital TV viewers rise to 33 per cent from 2 per cent in the same period in 2014 when the service started. In the meantime, analogue TV viewer numbers slid to 44 per cent, as of the end of June, from 66 per cent in the same month in 2014.

However, when it came to revenue generation, Kematat said it appeared to be a different story. He said TV business operators faced fierce competition while bearing high costs, both from production and content acquisition. Under such unavoidable pressures, he said some media firms opted to offer employees early retirement or redundancy.

“Having those tough conditions, it seems so hard for local TV operators, particularly in the category of family and kids’ programmes, to create good quality content to support long-term growth in the entire industry and to create a learning society,” he said.

The media federation also noted that a big question centred on regulatory frameworks that failed to support the industry. Since the beginning of the digital TV era, all involved parties have been pushing the broadcasting regulator to help reduce costs when businesses are in trouble due to geopolitical changes.

Among other things, businesses called for more flexibility in the collection of annual fees, which was recently approved by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

Under this new adjustment, the current fixed rate will be changed to progressive scales.

Another issue that has not met industry expectations relates to the plan to transition from analogue to digital.

“All Thai households should be fully funded to buy a full digital TV receiver set,” Kematat said.

“This will encourage them to enjoy watching new digital TV programmes without any charges. The NBTC offered, in fact, a Bt690 voucher to some households – not all. So the penetration of digital TV viewers remains below our expectation.”

Meanwhile, national marketing campaigns to promote and raise public awareness about digital TV have been delayed for more than two years.

Experiencing the slow response from the NBTC, some digital TV broadcasters called on the government to provide a relief measure by extending the remaining instalment for the upfront licence fee another three years.

“We want to see a relief measure similar to what the government has done for the small and medium-sized enterprises by offering debt restructuring. Both SMEs and digital TV operators are victims of the sluggish economy,” Kematat said.

He said to help boost the penetration of digital TV, the NBTC should allocate its remaining budget for extra digital TV coupons and inject it via a collaboration with the Federation of Thai Industries (Electrical, Electronics, Telecommunications and Allied Industry Club) to promote the use of digital TV receivers and boost the related industry.

Kematat, who is also president of the PPTV digital channel, said the media and broadcasting business was a key industry for the Kingdom, as its market value was Bt50 billion to Bt70 billion, based mainly on advertising revenue. That figure excluded the total value of TV production houses and related business.