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Thailand
has 480 radio stations. Many fall under the aegis of the
governmental Public Relations Department which is responsible
for Radio Thailand, the official government broadcasting station,
which transmits the local and international news mandatorily
broadcast by all Thai stations. Radio Thailand is also the
official channel for government information.
Along
with the Thai Television Company, Ltd., the Post and Telegraph
Department, the Royal Thai Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Police
Department, Kasetsart and Chulalongkorn Universities, and the
Ministry of all
operate radio stations. Except for the Education Ministry and
Radio Thailand broadcasts, all other stations are commercial and
rely heavily on advertising revenue to cover operating costs.
Programming tends to resemble the commercial format popular in
other countries, with
and talk shows the dominant fare.
In
1955 Thailand was the first country in Southeast Asia to begin
the regular television services. Today their are 5 channels
including Channel 9 and 11 which are run by the government,
Channel 5 and 7 run by the Army leaving Channel 3 as the only
Channel run by private enterprise. All stations except channel
11 are commercial.
The
programmes therefore must meet with the acceptance and appeal of
the audience at large, hence the selection and design of which
must be properly done. Variety and talk shows are among the most
popular and largely imported from the U.S. television series,
the Chinese dramas and the Japanese cartoons. Equally popular
are the locally produced serialized
and the quiz and game shows. Among the younger audiences the U.S.
and Japanese cartoons have won a sizable market. Similarly, the
local programmes specially designed and created for youth and
children are also doing well. Educational programmes which are
introduced as a part of the courses offered by the open-university
are broadcasted to enthusiastic audiences who pursue their
studies for the academic degree through this media. Sports
programmes, particularly local and overseas soccer, boxing
matches, golfing and snooker from local sources and live
telecast from overseas are among some of the items that seem to
attract great appeal from the Thai public.
Besides
the regular channels, Thailand has at last 10 privately owned
cable television programmes which broadcast in both Thai and
English. |
