MCOT Plc's digital TV network suffered an operating failure yesterday, reportedly caused by malfunctioning equipment.
The network failure left Bangkok viewers with a black screen from 11.20am until press time last night. Signal transmission was back to normal in Chiang Mai at 4pm.
Suthee Suwanprapa, manager of the signal transmission department at MCOT, said the problem at the Chiang Mai site had been fixed.
The Bangkok network site was still being looked at last night, so MCOT was using its reserved network site in Rayong to transmit signals on behalf of the Bangkok site.
The network site in Bangkok is at Baiyoke Tower 2. Repairs were expected to take eight hours.
At the same time, MCOT was in talks with Thai PBS to use the latter's network for temporary signal transmission.
Connecting signals from MCOT's digital TV clients to the Thai PBS network would likely take two or three days.
At first it was suspected that the network failure arose from problems with the transmission equipment.
MCOT uses equipment made by Germany's Rohde & Schwarz and imported by TEC TV Co.
Five digital TV channels rent out the MCOT network: Thairath TV, Voice TV, Spring News and the company's own MCOT Family and MCOT HD.
The network failure prevented the three client channels and MCOT Family from airing via the satellite, cable and digital systems.
MCOT HD, which has the same content as Channel 9, could still broadcast as usual on every platform.
The affected channels are assessing the impact and losses from the outage.
For its network, MCOT charges 14.3 million baht a month for high-definition channels and 4.76 million for standard-definition ones.
MCOT is renting rather than buying its transmission equipment due to a budget shortage.
The company received a notice from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) last month concerning network expansion delays.
MCOT was told it must extend its network coverage to the remaining provinces of Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani and Sing Buri within 30 days or risk a fine.
The NBTC's broadcasting committee will convene for a special meeting today on the MCOT network failure.
An MCOT source alluded to "internal problems" at the company and said the board wanted to start new network procurement after the project was halted on the junta's order.