Digital TV viewership in July reached 89.4%, up slightly from June's 89.2%, as the Wild Boars cave rescue in Chiang Rai drew huge audiences for live broadcasts and news updates, says the broadcasting regulator.
According to the latest report of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), the high viewership rate of live broadcasts covering the rescue of 12 boys and their football coach improved some TV stations' ratings, especially Thairath TV, which ranked an all-time-high fifth place last month, and MCOT HD, which cracked the top 10 for the first time.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said digital TV viewership increased slightly in July as viewership for satellite and cable TV stations continued to decrease.
Satellite and cable TV station viewership was 10.58% in July, compared with 10.8% in June this year.
The NBTC report showed that 93.3% of households in Bangkok watch digital TV programmes, while 88.6% of households in provinces watch digital TV programmes, with the remainder of households watching satellite and cable TV programmes.
Mr Takorn said the market value of advertising via digital TV in July was 5.9 billion baht, 360 million baht lower than in June 2018 but an increase of 692 million baht from 5.2 billion baht recorded in June 2017.
For TV ratings in July, Mr Takorn said the top 10 TV stations were Channel 7 HD, Channel 3 HD, Mono 29, Workpoint TV, Thairath TV, One HD, Channel 8, Amarin TV, Channel 3 SD and MCOT HD.
Most of the top 10 digital TV stations were the same stations listed in June, except for Thairath TV and MCOT HD.
Last month, Thairath TV station was ranked among the top five popular stations for the first time, mainly driven by live broadcasts of the football team rescue and news updates.
Additionally, the live broadcast of the rescue helped improve MCOT HD station's ratings.
Several TV programmes such as dramas and variety still attracted huge audiences in July. Mono 29, which mainly shows movies, saw better ratings, while Workpoint TV maintained its position by broadcasting popular variety programmes.