Media / Television
On June 24, 1955, Channel 4 in Bangkok began telecasting. It was the first to operate in Thailand and in the whole of mainland Asia. Today, there are nine channels, namely 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Channel 9 is the only one received throughout the country; channel 3 is a private station, channels 5 and 7 are owned by the military, and channel 11 is run by the Ministry of Education.
English sound tracks are broadcast for the main evening news of channel 9 on FM 107 Mhz, and for the main evening news of channel 3 and 7 on FM 104.5 Mhz. The English sound track usually only accompanies the film reports but not the news that are just read out, so one will often miss a substantial part of the news; synchronization of local film reports is often poor, and only few people will enjoy this setup.
There is a local English language cable network, IBC. Many better hotels are subscribers and reception is possible in every room. Some first-class hotels also have reception of CNN.
Telecast is in the PAL system, so most European (except the French) and Australian TV sets can be used; American and Japanese TV sets are built for the NTSC system which is not compatible with PAL.
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