The English Premier League in full HD

I have been a fan of the English Premier League for many years. That was the reason to subscribe to True Vision in Thailand. After all, he had the broadcasting rights in Thailand. Until August of this year, when True offered less money than CTH, a relatively unknown cable operator. So no reason to pay more than 1600 baht a month for some old films, Thai channels and (unfortunately) Formula 1.

I then tried to follow the English matches via all kinds of (Russian) websites. Sometimes that went well, but more often it didn't. Streaming was virtually impossible, while you were persuaded to gamble in all kinds of ways.

The Premier League would be shown via the cable company in Hua Hin, Ge Un Tung. That seemed like a tempting option. This club charges me 2500 baht annually for almost 200 channels. Especially BVN and the BBC (in the evenings) form the main part in that context. Via BVN I see the summaries of the Dutch competition and that is more than enough…

It indeed turned out to be possible to receive the Premier League in HD, but the customer must pay a year's subscription fee in advance, the sweet sum of approximately 12.000 baht. In eight years in Thailand I have learned to pay as little as possible in advance, and to seek redress if the quality is disappointing due to a lack of options.

At Teso Lotus I found a CTH receiver for the reasonable amount of 2100 baht. According to the seller I could use the old True dish. He came to check on the case after work.

My heart was beating with anticipation, especially because I had also bought a flat screen with internet and a kind of home theater set from him.

Unfortunately (I was already afraid of that) the True dish turned out to be unusable. There had to be a much larger copy. That cost only 2000 baht, mounted and connected. I can watch for free for the first 7 days. After that I pay 550 baht per month.

I watched the first game in the Premier League breathlessly in HD. I am not much wiser about the other channels of CTH. Lots of Thai junk, from giggling girls, through annoying ladyboys to meditating monks. And the occasional nice movie. Oh yes, I can also watch Somali TV. CTH's programming is an opaque mess and announcements are in Thai only (both spoken and written).

It is in itself a good thing that True's monopoly has been broken, although that is now in the hands of CTH. He tries to recoup part of the investment by advertising during the matches. Unfortunately, only one match channel is provided with English commentary. The other three sports channels I have to make do with Thai commentators.

In total I now have about 600 channels. To bore? Absolutely not. I'm busy zapping.