TrueVisions is a cable and

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna com ...

operator in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. TrueVisions is owned by the

True Corporation True Corporation Public Company Limited (TRUE) is a communications conglomerate in Thailand. True controls Thailand's largest cable TV provider, TrueVisions, Thailand's largest internet service provider True Internet and one of Thailand's larges ...

. Until February 2007, it was called the United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), or UBC-True.

History

International Broadcasting Corporation (1989 1998)

In 1989, the International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) was established by Thaksin Shinawatra. It was the first national

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

provider. The

MCOT MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT; th, บริษัท อสมท จำกัด (มหาชน)), formerly known as the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand, is a Thai state-owned public broadcaster. It owns and operates a numb ...

gave the IBC a twenty year concession to a provide subscription television service. The IBC broadcast its programmes via

super high frequency Super high frequency (SHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range between 3 and 30 gigahertz (GHz). This band of frequencies is also known as the centimetre band or centimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one t ...

microwaves using MMDS. In 1995, after approval for an expansion of coverage area, the IBC began its first DTH service. In 1997, the South AfricanDutch company, MIH Limited, bought a sixteen percent stake in the IBC.Lewis G
''Virtual Thailand: The Media and Cultural Politics in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore''
Routledge The IBC obtained most program content from the channels of other countries including HBO, CNN and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

UTV Cable Network (1993 1998)

In September 1995, UTV began a CATV service in the

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

metropolitan area. The service was provided on a hybrid fiber coaxial network. The cable technology allowed a number of channels to be offered with high quality sound and pictures. It also provided a

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program g ...

option. By 1997, the hybrid fiber coaxial cable network reached about 800,000 homes. In 1997, UTV sold the cable infrastructure component of its business to its sister company, Asia Multimedia Company Limited. This allowed UTV to focus on content and service delivery to subscribers.

Merger with United Broadcasting Corporation (1998 2006)

In February 1998, after the onset of the

1997 Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998– ...

, the IBC merged with UTV in order to decrease operational costs. The United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) was formed. The UBC later split into two companies: UBC plc. which provided a pay-television service via the IBC's satellite transmission concession, and UBC Cable Co., Ltd. which provided a pay-television service via UTV's cable concession.

UBC-True (2006 2007)

In November 2005, True Corporation (True) bought a 30.59 percent stake in UBC from MIH Holdings. It launched a tender offer for the 221 million shares outstanding at 26.5 baht per share and delisted UBC from the

Stock Exchange of Thailand The Stock Exchange of Thailand ( th, ตลาดหลักทรัพย์แห่งประเทศไทย), or SET, is the only stock exchange in Thailand. Founded on 30 April 1975, it is ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Asso ...

(SET). In April 2006, UBC rebranded to "UBC-True". UBC was delisted from SET on April 11, 2006. On April 2, 2006, UBC-True announced that it would launch the documentary channels Explore 1, Explore 2, and Explore 3 in October 2006. UBC-True also announced the launch of entertainment channels, G-Square and UBC Preview, followed by two music channels, Majung TV and True Music.

TrueVisions (2007 present)

On January 24, 2007, UBC-True was re-branded as "TrueVisions" (TrueVisions UBC). It announced its purchase of exclusive rights to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. On July 12, 2012, after a long battle about

Copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

(piracy), TrueVisions switched its content encryption system to VideoGuard. It also upgraded its video encryption from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4. This was used with the new HD set-top box launched in October 2011. In 2012, TrueVisions lost its bid for the 2013 2016 Premier League broadcast rights to a new company, CTH. In 2016, TrueVisions restored the Premier League contents through beIN Sports, the

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

based sports network. After negotiations, TrueVisions aired 6 beIN sports channels. However, in 2019 TrueVisions won the rights to broadcast the

for 3 seasons, from 2019/2020-2021/2022.

Number of subscribers

At the end of the 2008 financial year, TrueVisions had 799,837 subscribers (1,469,000 subscribers including FreeView). The table below, charts the annual growth of TrueVisions' subscriber base (excluding TrueLife FreeView):

Products

Personal Video Recording System

In July 2008, TrueVisions launched its PVR (Personal-Digital Video Recording) system. The TrueVisions PVR set-top box included a 140 GB hard drive for recording. It was sold separately with an extra monthly fee.

HD set-top box

In October 2011, TrueVisions launched an HD descrambler and all-in-one set-top box called "HD Plus" following the launch of its HDTV service. The HD Plus was manufactured by

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

and

Humax Humax (휴맥스) is a consumer electronics company. Founded in South Korea in 1989, it manufactures set-top boxes, digital video recorders and other consumer electronics. It is publicly traded on KOSDAQ. Listed on the Korean stock exchange ( ...

. HD Plus also has the PVR feature which recorded using an external

eSATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard t ...

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with mag ...

. On September 22, 2014, the extra monthly fee for PVR was removed for customers with premium packages.

High-definition channels

In November 2007, TrueVisions started testing its high definition (HD) broadcasts and its new HD PVR set-top box. The system was also demonstrated at the Bangkok ICT Expo. In 2010, TrueVisions offered customers with premium subscriptions three HD channels (HBO and two sports channels) for an extra payment. The original HD set-top box did not have a DVR function. In 2011, TrueVisions offered CATV customer eight new HD channels, and a new combined HD and PVR set-top box. This coincided with extension of fibre optic cable networks to some provincial areas. On July 16, 2012, TrueVisions expanded their HD offerings to seventeen channels, making all HD channels available to both DSTV and CATV subscribers. In September 2016, TrueVisions offered fifty-six HD channels.

3D broadcasts

In 2008, TrueVisions tested 3D broadcasts, showing short European-made vignettes filmed using the

Pulfrich effect The Pulfrich effect is a psychophysical percept wherein lateral motion of an object in the field of view is interpreted by the visual cortex as having a depth component, due to a relative difference in signal timings between the two eyes. Overvie ...

. In 2009, segments of Academy Fantasia were broadcast live using the

. Since 2013, the True Film HD channel has aired selected movies in a Side-By-Side 3D format.

4K UHD

On May 18, 2018, TrueVisions announced it will broadcast most of the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

live matches in UHD on a new dedicated 4K channel.

TrueID TV

The "TrueID TV" service offers more viewing options. Customers can view their subscribed channels (but not all channels) on any mobile device. Functions include "on demand" and "picture quality".

References

External links

* {{TV in Thailand Cable television companies Charoen Pokphand Companies based in Bangkok Mass media companies of Thailand Television in Thailand