The Productions of Thai Agricultural-Related Television Program in the Digital

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to explore basics of agricultural-related television programs
broadcast through digital television System in Thailand 2) to study the situation of production, problems
and factors affecting the production of agriculture programs for digital television broadcast 3) to provide
guidelines digital television production to create appropriate agriculture program. The tools used to collect
data were survey form for television programs on agricultures broadcast through digital television, along
with interviews from the production staff of the agriculture television program, from the productionmanagers of digital television program. The study revealed that agricultural programs broadcast via
digital television channels in Thailand comprised of totally seventeen programs, broadcast during 5:00
A.M. to 5:30 A.M. The digital television channel that has the most agricultural programs is The National
Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT) channel, totally five programs. The processes of agricultural
television program production were composed of three stages: pre-production stage, production stage
and post-production stage, which were presented in semi-documentary format. Additionally, programs
were divided into three phases. The first phase was introduction to locations and farmers for leading the
story. The next phase presented detailed contents or interview of farmers. The last phase summarized
contents, answered questions, built up inspiration or provided additional related knowledge. Problems
affecting the agricultural programs were changes in the policy of the television channel and transition
to digital broadcasting. The crucial factors affecting agriculture television productions through digital
television broadcasts were capital funding, contents and formats. The appropriate guidelines for agriculture
television production were as follows: Television programs should be presented in a documentary format
with more varieties, together with adding more contents or problems related to the current situations. Apart
from agricultural contents, programs should include other interesting content such as agro-tourism, or
agricultural business, together with expanding other broadcast time during 3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. in order
to increase the number of general audiences to watch agriculture programs.