More than 100 satellite and cable TV operators will today submit their programming schedules to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to make clear their content contains nothing that is politically or socially questionable.
Satellite channels suspended by the National Council for Peace and Order are showing this screen. KOSOL NAKACHOL
The submissions will be aimed at obtaining NCPO approval to start broadcasting again.
“We will comply with the NCPO’s recent order, which was issued purely out of concern for national security and aimed at keeping the country peaceful,” said Niphon Naksompop, president of the Satellite Television Association of Thailand (STAT).
The NCPO last Thursday ordered satellite and cable TV channels to desist from broadcasting their channels as usual.
More than 100 of these stations still maintain blank screens apart from broadcasting NCPO announcements for their viewers. Some 6,000 community radio stations have also been shut.
At present, only six free analogue and 274 pay channels are allowed to be on air.
Thaicom Plc, the country’s only satellite transponder provider, will monitor and immediately shut down any channels found to be airing inappropriate content.
The IPM satellite TV platform, which uses a Dutch satellite transponder, has vowed to do the same.
“We’ll exercise strict self-censorship to comply with NCPO orders, without exception,” said the STAT’s Mr Niphon.
He said most satellite and cable channels provided informative content, children’s shows and other programming not politically related.
Mr Niphon said the satellite and cable TV industry employed 10,000 staff and depended on advertising revenue to survive.
If the suspension of satellite channels lasts much longer, they will suffer, as they must pay fixed costs.
The blockage has prompted some satellite channels such as the yellow shirts’ ASTV to seek donations to survive. ASTV employs about 500 staff.
Eakchai Phakdurong, Thaicom’s vice-president for corporate affairs, said the company would confer with its board about suspending the collection of transponder rental fees during this time.
Each broadcasting approval made by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) must receive a second approval by the NCPO out of concern for national security.
The NCPO’s order also presses unidentified broadcasters to clarify their status as pay or free, Mr Niphon said.
Meanwhile, the NBTC’s broadcasting panel yesterday approved 73 licences for pay TV channels switching from free status.
The broadcasting panel also agreed to extend implementation of the amended must-carry rule for another 100 days, enabling the analogue Channels 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 and Thai PBS to transmit their programme signals through every platform — satellite, pay, digital and analogue TV.
This relieves the burden for analogue Channel 3.
It had been facing an NBTC order to be dropped from the pay TV platform.