True Visions Group Co., Ltd. is the largest provider of a

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

analog television (CAtv) and digital

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.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

(DStv) in Thailand. TrueVisions is a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

of the business division of

True Corporation True Corporation Public Company Limited (stylized as true) is a communications conglomerate in Thailand. It is a joint venture between Charoen Pokphand Group and Telenor, formed by the merger between the original True Corporation and DTAC in t ...

. Prior to February 2007, the company was variously known as United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), United Television Cable Network (UTV) or International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC).

History

International Broadcasting Corporation (1989 1998)

Before the establishment of IBC, Thailand had five television networks (3, 5, 7, 9, 11). The company was founded in 1985 with

Thaksin Shinawatra Thaksin Shinawatra (, ; born 26 July 1949) is a Thai businessman and politician who was the 23rd prime minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006. Since 2009 he has also been a citizen of Montenegro. Thaksin founded the mobile phone operator A ...

presenting a proposal for a cable television project. The IBC project also had consultancy from American company Clearview International,เชื่อมต่อความรู้ทั่วไทยด้วย IBC
/ref> who, in its assessment of a cable television service for

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

in 1983, was already planning something similar in Thailand. The International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) was established by Thaksin Shinawatra at the time as chairperson of Shinawatra Computer Co., Ltd. and later enter partnership with Clearview Wireless. It was the first national

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

provider since April 17, 1989.

MCOT MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT; ), formerly known as the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand, is a Thai state-owned public broadcaster. It owns and operates a number of radio and television stations in Thailand. It is based in Bangko ...

gave the IBC a twenty-year concession to a provide subscription television service. The IBC broadcasts its programs 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 ...

microwaves using

MMDS Multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS), formerly known as broadband radio service (BRS) and also known as wireless cable, is a wireless telecommunications technology, used for general-purpose broadband networking or, more commonly ...

. It was the only Thai cable company until June 1990, when MCOT approved a second license to Siam Broadcasting Co, Ltd, which eventually became

Thai Sky TV Thai Sky TV () was a satellite television operator that existed in Thailand between 1991 and 1997, owned by Siam Broadcasting Company Limited, a unit of MCOT. History Siam Broadcasting Company was registered in June 1990. Thai Sky TV launched te ...

. In 1991, when it launched, IBC launched a channel entirely in Thai to compete. 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 Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

UTV Cable Network (1993 1998)

UTV Cable Network was founded on October 2, 1992 to provide cable service of their own under TelecomAsia (now True Corporation). In September 1995, UTV began a CATV service in the

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, 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 estim ...

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 ...

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 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide eco ...

, the IBC is merged with UTV in order to decrease operational costs. The United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) was formed on July 1, 1998. The UBC later split into two companies: UBC PCL. 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. Shin Corporation (formerly Shinawatra Computer Co., Ltd. and now

Intouch Holdings Intouch Holdings PCL (; formerly Shin Corporation) is a Thai holding company which focuses on the telecommunication industry. It is the parent company of Advanced Info Service (AIS), the largest mobile phone operator in Thailand, and Thaicom ( ...

) eventually gave their stakeholder on UBC in late 1998 and sell entirely to TelecomAsia (now True Corporation).

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 (, ; SET) has been the sole stock exchange operator in Thailand since its establishment on 30 April 1975. As of 8 April 2025, with a market capitalization of US$380.19 billion (excluding mai) at an exchange rate ...

(SET). UBC rebranded to "UBC-True" sometime in April 2006. 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" (at the time called TrueVisions UBC). It announced its purchase of exclusive rights to the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

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

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

(piracy), TrueVisions switched its content encryption system to

VideoGuard VideoGuard (sometimes referred to simply as ''NDS''), produced by NDS, is a digital encryption system for use with conditional access television broadcasting. It is used on digital satellite television systems – some of which are operated by ...

. 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 beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...

, the

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

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

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

for three more seasons, from 2019 through 2022.

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 Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

and Humax. 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 ...

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 hard disk drive platter, pla ...

. 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. In 2009, segments of Academy Fantasia were broadcast live using the Pulfrich effect. 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 national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

live matches in

UHD UHD may refer to: Technology * Ultra-high-definition television * Ultra HD, any of several high-definition graphics display resolutions * USRP hardware driver, used with Universal Software Radio Peripherals * Ultra HD Blu-ray, an enhanced varian ...

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 Companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand Cable television companies Charoen Pokphand True Corporation Companies based in Bangkok Mass media companies of Thailand Television in Thailand Thai companies established in 1989 Mass media companies established in 1989 1989 establishments in Thailand