CABLE TV - THE LOWDOWN

Post by **Jaime** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:05 pm

For all those considering cable TV, here is a complete run down on what you get and how much it costs. Perhaps someone who has satellite could do the same thing for a comparison and both posts could be pinned?

First the costs:

To get cable installed cost me 940 Baht. This included the connection fee of 640 Baht and a single months viewing contract of 300 Baht. I just wanted to try it for a month to see what you get but if you want to sign a contract for a year, the total cost is 2500 Baht. This includes the 640 Baht connection charge, making the monthly fee only 155 Baht! If, like me, you let your monthly contract lapse, then you will have to pay a re-connection charge of 200 Baht and then another monthly charge of 300 Baht if you choose to only take up a single month contract (ideal for annual holidays as it still works out cheaper than maintaining the contract while you are away). Not sure what the re-connection charge is if you let your annual contract lapse but can't imagine it would be much different.

The actual connection took about half an hour and involved the operatives stringing a cable from the nearest telegraph pole to my roof eaves and connecting it to the existing cable TV wiring in my loft. If you don't already have the necessary TV wiring in your property then that will be an additional cost.

As for channels, although there is lots of English language content, British news interest is not very well catered for. SKY, BBC and CNN are NOT part of the package. There is an obvious market for UK based broadcasting so I can't understand why at least some limited news programming is not part of the package. Here is the complete channel listing:

1. Station Ten - Kids cartoons in Thai
2. Fox News - English language rolling news presented in a magazine style format - US perspective with very little about news outside the US
3. Thai TV3 - General broadcasting in Thai
4. CTS - General broadcasting in Thai
5. Thai Channel 5 - General broadcasting in Thai
6. iTV Thai - General broadcasting in Thai
7. Unidentified Thai channel
8. Sahara One - India based general broadcasting
9. Thai MCOT - Rolling financial markets news in Thai
10. 'V' Channel - English language music videos and fairly recent films
11. Thai Channel 11 - General broadcasting in Thai
12. TGN - General broadcasting in Thai
13. Unidentified channel that shows fairly recent English language films with Thai subtitles
14. Station Ten - Thai 'Dtalok' comedy
15. Station Ten: 'Ten Stories' - Documentaries in Thai
16. Unidentified Thai channel
17. MVTV - General broadcasting in Thai
18. ABTV2 - General broadcasting in Thai
19. ABTV1 - General broadcasting in Thai
20. Station Ten - Thai music videos with Karaoke subtitling in Thai
21. DW - News and reports from a German perspective. Programmes are broadcast first in German and then repeated in English straight afterwards - a good option for European general news if you are fed up of listening to news about the baseball players' strike on Fox!
22. TV5 Asie - General broadcasting in French
23. MV3 T Channel - Thai music videos with Karaoke subtitling in Thai
24. STC: Sound Track Channel - English language music video channel
25. RAI International - General broadcasting in Italian
26. CCTV - General broadcasting in Chinese
27. Eurosport News - English language rolling sports bulletin with plenty of football, motorsports and devoting plenty of time to the likes of curling, speed skating and other minor interest 'sports' but little rugby during the course of the recent 6 Nations championship - frustrating!
28. DD Sports Channel - Live sports channel covering some interesting stuff such as the recent India-Pakistan cricket tests.
29. Bloomberg - Rolling financial markets news
30. Reality TV - English language showing shocking accidents, police raids etc. etc. Voyeuristic stuff for trauma fetishists
31. ABC - General broadcasting in English from an Australian perspective. The news bulletins are the most 'BBC-like' for Brits and show a balanced run-down of world events outside Australia. Lots of British made comedy and drama on this channel (A Touch of Frost, POW, William and Mary etc.) as well as live rugby league, aussie rules and presumably cricket and a bit of rugby union when available.
32. ABTV3 - General broadcasting in Thai
33. A1 - Adventure documentaries from Asia. National Geographic style broadcasting in English
34. Star World - English language entertainment channel showing 'Friends' and other favourites
35. DLTV7 - Educational channel for students in Thai
36. DLTV8 - Educational channel for students in Thai
37. DLTV9 - Educational channel for students in Thai
38. DLTV10 - Educational channel for students in Thai

That's it! Hope this was useful!

Post by **lomuamart** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:47 am

For those of us who have lived here for a number of years, the above is obvious.
Cable is a total waste of time and money, particularly when the pirated stations get closed down by satalitte.
Hence, no BBC, or even Cnn. Only Uncle Rupert's Fox News. No live sport and the rest is dross.
Don't bother with cable, unless as Captain Morgan said, "you trust a bunch of pirates".
Oh yes, I forgot. If your thai gf/wife likes Thai soaps, she can get them for free. No cable necessary. Just an ariel.

Post by **Jaime** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:28 am

lomuamart wrote:For those of us who have lived here for a number of years, the above is obvious.

And for those who haven't, I hope my original post provided enough clear information to help people to make their choice, especially since previous threads on this same subject have provided little informed advice. I thought that was the whole point of this part of the forum!

I have no doubt that satellite provides much more choice for ex-pats and visitors but as for cable being a waste of time, I suppose it depends on your circumstances, nationality and budget. My kids speak Thai and loved the cartoon channel, which we didn't get with an ariel. If you are a US citizen, maybe FOX isn't so bad. There is also a minor inaccuracy in your post in that cable does have live sports (DD Sports and rugby, cricket etc. on ABC) but not, of course, Premiership football. I suppose it depends on what you like, which is why I put up my original post.

As I mentioned in the post, it would be good for someone who knows to post a similar message about Satellite TV, including costs, connection charges, contract period options etc so people can make a proper comparison based on informed rather than emotive and inaccurate advice. For example, what is the minimum contract period? Those of us who own holiday homes might think it worthwhile to get connected for just the month or so we are there, even if the annual contract is too expensive. From what I have been told (by people who don't have it) it costs about 2500 baht a month so if that's true, cable, for all its many faults seems like a good deal because at least it does have some English language entertainment that you can vegetate in front of when you get home from the pub for not much more than the cost of a couple of beers per month.

Post by **lomuamart** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:33 am

Wasn't having a go at you, Jaime. More at the poor state of broadcasting in this country. One of my pet hates. The same goes for the telecommunications industry.
I don't have satallite, but I thought the cost was around 1,500 per month after initial setup. I'd say essential if you've got a bar or other business to run. For domestic use, I can't justify the cost. Spend too much time on the internet moderating this site

Post by **lomuamart** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:44 am

BTW, we used to get BBC World Service/CNN, National geographic/Discovery and live British football.
All these channels were pirated from satallite and closed down a while ago. They even closed down the movie channel as they didn't pay the licence to broadcast the films. It's back now, as you'll know.
Essentially, cable in HH is a local operation that "goes with the flow". Ie, if they can get into a channel, they will - without paying.

Post by **Jaime** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:31 am

lomuamart wrote:Wasn't having a go at you, Jaime. More at the poor state of broadcasting in this country.

No probs. - glad we cleared that up!

Post by **shakin' boxcar joe** » Tue May 03, 2005 1:50 pm

can anybody tell me what channels are available with the ubc packages available in hua hin.

i'm particularly interested in news , documentary , uk comedy , history , biograhy , discovery , science channels and premier league.

will my interests be covered or should i just take up knitting.

Post by **larry70dj** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:37 pm

http://www.ubctv.com/default.aspx?

Post by **Jaime** » Wed May 04, 2005 7:31 pm

Cheers Larry - that is the link everyone's been waiting for!

Post by **tuktukmike** » Wed May 04, 2005 8:44 pm

just contacted UBC today and the current promotion is , pay one years subscription and get 4 months free.

Going in tomorrow to sign up.

Mike.

Post by **Viseman** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:58 am

Is it possible to run a cable modem through their cable connections? If so, does anyone know if it costs anything, or if you just patch your equipment in?

Post by **buksida** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:55 am

Viseman wrote:Is it possible to run a cable modem through their cable connections? If so, does anyone know if it costs anything, or if you just patch your equipment in?

As far as I know cable internet service is not available in Hua Hin (they struggle with the TV). You can get standard ADSL over your phone line, more details here:

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/vi ... php?t=1392

Post by **niceday** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:18 am

I'm sure i only paid 250 to have cable installed a year ago maybe it was a promotion and it worked out at something like 230 baht a month because paid for 6 months in advance.

star world for some comedys and
the movie vcd channel has some good movies

Satellite(UBC) is probably only worth it for the sports or if you watch a lot of tv.
I'm tempted myself sometimes but the setup cost about 10-15k and monthly 1600-2k? seems a bit steep for what they give.

Post by **intlkid** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:33 pm

My TOSHIBA DVD home theater system broke down. It ceased to read discs, my guess, could be the lens problem. Can anyone suggest a good place for repair. I tried the Panasonic repair shop, it was a total dissapointment.

btw, Is there anywhere i can sell a decoder box for UBC?

cheers

Post by **HansMartin** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 8:28 am

Well it is better than the Thai videos that I am subjected to by my wife here in the states.

Fox news --ugh!!

Cricket and soccer, no real football. That is what I remember from my trips to HH, and the rest of Thailand. Adaptation is the key I guess.