Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS), Thailand’s first public TV station, will focus on children’s programmes, news and documentaries during prime time hours from 6 pm until midnight, when it begins broadcasting on 1 February, said acting station head Thepchai Yong.
Mr Thepchai said at the end of a meeting of the five member interim TPBS board held in Nakhon Pathom today, that the meeting has agreed to concentrate in its first phase on programmes aimed at children which will be followed by local news and foreign news analysis, documentaries and short features which are not currently aired in Thailand.
Other programmes will, according to Mr Thepchai, start in phase 2 as the interim TPBS board has too little time to prepare and only about 150 employees will initially be hired to work for the station. More employees will be hired after the next one or two months so the station can then operate round-the-clock, he said.
Under the Public Broadcasting Service Act, TPBS took over the TITV station which went off the air abruptly on Tuesday 15 January. The closure left 835 staff jobless, who are required to reapply for jobs at TPBS.
Mr Thepchai said immediate tasks facing TPBS are the call for a transfer of TITV assets and settlement of other obligations, which will be difficult because TITV has assets throughout Thailand. He said a sub-committee could be set up to handle TITV’s assets.
(Source: Thai News Agency)
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on Jun 16th, 2010 at 10:36
Although many destinations in Thailand remain unaffected by the current political crisis, the situation remains volatile because the two sides are about equally split in strength.
on Jul 8th, 2010 at 16:21
I hope this news agency will be free and open. I think the press should be free in all societies. Let the people have all the information so that they can view the issues from all sides.