Watershed year for Thai TV

On buses, billboards and LCD screens at major road intersections, striking advertisements from digital TV channels outlining their exciting content demonstrates the massive promotional budgets spent on trying to attract viewers. The more the merrier? Not always, or at least not on the Thai TV airwaves.

A news show on Thairath TV.

This was a watershed year for Thai television, perhaps marked with the same cultural excitement as when Channel 4 Bangkhunprom went on air in 1955. The advent of digital television, with its 48 free channels, was expected to be revolutionary in terms of business, education, entertainment as well as culture.

But does "more" mean more quality, or just more of the same?

Since the transition to digital in April, channels are still on a test run and trying hard to find popular content, while next year will see them revising strategies and programmes to stay in the broadcasting game. Meanwhile, for the audience, the headache of finding channels they want from the long list on the menu (and unfamiliar station names) has turned the flat screen into a test of patience and devotion.

Dok Son Chu, Channel 8.

Two dozen digital TV stations are auctioned commercial channels, categorised as news, variety, children and HD channels that promise quality content to hook viewers. One of the reasons for the state's liberation of the airwaves was to encourage alternative programming and improve the overall content quality, but so far, that goal remains unfulfilled.

TV drama is the most competitive category in a country where watching soap operas is a popular pastime (almost a national sport), with prime-time dramas on channels 3 and 7 airing for 120 minutes (including commercials) for one episode, which is longer than a regular movie.

Also presenting early evening dramas from 6pm, Channel 3 and Channel 7 are major rivals in this category, with many production houses supplying a variety of dramas, thrillers and romantic comedies in 2014.

However, none of them really became the talk of the town compared to the 2012 version of Raeng Ngao and 2013 hits, a remake of Thong Nua Kao, the Suphab Burut Chutathep series and Hormones Season One.

Aired on GMM Channel, the sequel to the controversial teen drama Hormones featured more confused adolescent students, but was not as big a hit as the first season. The first Hormones broke new ground for confronting teen problems head-on; the sequel, however, seemed like an attempt to stir drama and controversy while keeping the ratings high.

Another late night TV series on sister channel One, Songkram Nang Ngarm (Beauty And The Bitches), created a big buzz in 2014 as the Scenario production took viewers behind-the-scenes to follow lives of contestants in a beauty pageant, including their conflicts and catfights. This late night drama airs after 10pm, with the content suitable for viewers aged over 18. In a way, digital or analogue, it was the same old content feeding the same old tastes.

Also under GMM Grammy's umbrella, channel One promises juicy soap operas and sitcoms by Scenario and Exact production houses with the 2015 line-up including remakes of Kehard Dao and Ban Lang Mek.

Another entertainment giant, RS, has Channel 8 delivering high drama, with this year's Pua Chua Kraow (translated as Temporary Husband) stirring controversy because the plot had mum and daughter liking the same man. This channel also aired Dong Dok Ngiew, Ching Rak Huk Sawat and Mia Tuen, indicating its speciality in sensational soaps, particularly with plots involving women fighting over men. The Thai titles, when translated, revolve around words like "wife", "love", "jealousy" and "passion".

In short, we're still longing for quality. Given the golden age of television in the US with all their great series, the dream of seeing Thai television inching towards that kind of quality entertainment remains elusive, despite the wider platform provided by the new digital channels.

Talok Hok Kamane, a hilarious variety game show on Thairath TV.

Prospects remain the same for 2015. With more contenders in the soap opera arena, Channel 3, the leader of the pack, has counteracted with big-budget productions. The Bang Rajan epic kicks off the new year and premieres on Jan 6. It's a TV version of the familiar story of patriotic villagers fighting off the invading Burmese army.

Its 2015 line-up also includes the five-in-one Mafia Luerd Mungkorn series featuring Sua (Tiger), Singh (Lion), Krating (Guar) Raed (Rhinoceros) and Hong (Swan), each of the dramas featuring a star-studded cast. In addition, the channel managed to bring singing superstar Thongchai "Bird" McIntyre back on TV as a Japanese nobleman opposing Araya "Chompoo" Hargate in Japanese-themed soap Kol Kimono. The return of Thongchai will surely stir up a buzz next year.

The Face Thailand, a modelling-themed reality television show with Ploy-Chermarn Boonyasak as one of three coaches.

A newcomer to broadcasting, Thairath TV will present a Thai adaptation of Ugly Betty, about an unattractive quirky woman who gets to work at a fashion empire.

Ugly Betty Thailand is one of the station's tactics to transfer its mass newspaper readers into viewers of its HD channel, where variety of content includes news, game shows and reality shows, besides drama series.

Importing foreign shows and adapting them to Thailand has been a trend too. Channel 3 this year had fair success with The Face Thailand, a modelling-themed reality show featuring three diva coaches grooming their girls to become the next supermodel. The fusion between scripted drama and spontaneous acting has put fashion-minded viewers on edge quite effectively — it's another way of making a soap opera.

Workpoint Creative TV has gone into the field with a variety of programmes, including South Korean makeover reality show, Let Me In, which features real people who undergo plastic surgery and afterwards following them to see how it changes their lives.

This will be followed up by a Thai version of Let Me In in 2015, while Channel 7 has The Choice Thailand, a celebrity dating game, premiering on Jan 3 with a top Thai male star picking his girl.

Other popular content includes live sports broadcasts with Channel 8's Thai boxing and Thairath TV's Barclays Premier League.

The newspaper empire plans to invest in a 13-floor broadcasting complex equipped with virtual studio system, robotic system in the control room and a modern media asset management system for in-house production in order to create signature TV programmes to strengthen content.

With major players investing more in broadcasting, the smaller commercial TV stations face a tough 2015 in trying to offer more quality content and therefore surviving in this brutal market. For us, the audience, the more the merrier, even if it does not always mean better content.