Race in Broadcasting Business and Content Management

Thai and Lao satellite broadcasting in the United States and Canada is very difficult to maintain and hard to survive in today’s market. There are more than 10 cable stations start up in this year (2012). During 2007 – 2011, there were only 4 stations existed in the market ( LaoChampa, Network of Asian Telecommunication (Nattv), Thai Global Network (TGN), and IPtv).  During 2007, there was a lawsuit (Channel 7 Thailand against IPtv) due to an unauthorized broadcast movies and music in the United States.  IPtv lost the case. It was forced to shut down in 2009 and pay the sum of 7 million dollars to Thai television in Thailand (channel 7 Thailand).

At that time, IPtv was the most powerful and the most popular station among Thai and Lao viewers in North America region. Because they had the most updated movies, live programs, music, and all variety shows from every station in Thailand. Unfortunately, IPtv broadcasted those content illegally. 

 Check out all of the cable stations at “Lingsat” under TP 22 (Transponder 22). This website shows all current television stations and radio stations on the Galaxy 19 satellite. According to Space Systems Loral, this satellite is very popular among investors because it covers the entire North America region.

In the past, IPtv controled their viewers by using subscription service and charged only small amount for each set top box they sold. Other stations including Nattv, Lao Champa tv, and TGN were doing business as free to air (FTA), which means no service charge for viewers, but stayed on market by selling products and gained advertisement. 

Not only unauthorized content is an issue with the race in satellite broadcasting,but also a method that many new satellite companies focus in is streaming broadcast service. They basically use high-speed network connection in the transmission process to stream via web browser instead of satellite. With today’s technology, high-speed connection is affordable and easy to have access to. People can search movies, music, and information from YouTube, Hulu, and other popular video streaming websites. 

In the past 4 years that I have been with my current company(NATTV), we are selling less Set-Top-Box for satellite receivers each year. This could be the demise of Satellite broadcasting in my opinion. 


Dootv is well known among Thai and Lao streaming viewers in America and Europe region. This website is streaming the most updated copyrighted materials from Thailand, Korea, Japan, and China. They are streaming movies, television series, game shows, and etc. This website is worldwide and also using subscription service to control and monitor their viewers. The subscription cost is very cheap. 

People who are using satellite Set-Top-Box would call us and ask if we can upgrade our service to broadband. Unfortunately, we cannot do as they request because we have to upgrade all of our equipments.


The Company has reviewed about the broadcast contract agreement, which we received from Thailand. The company is unable to compete with the copyright license fee, since the contract requires the station to re-broadcast content in specific regions (The United States and Canada). It cannot stream over Europe and Asia. The cost and return are not worth the effort to upgrade.

The company is now compiling research about broadband services. We are improving and producing new programs everyday to gain more viewers. We hope that we can resume satellite business and bring confident to the viewers.