All matches are available at AIS PLAY
Olympics has been the world’s ultimate sport games. Whenever it is held, it receives keen attention from peoples across the globe. Millions of sport fans indeed watch the events and send moral support to their favorite Olympians. Although COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the Olympic Games last year, it was unable to prevent Tokyo Olympics 2020 to kick off officially on 23 July 2021.
For the first time ever, this Olympics does not have any watcher at stadiums. But thanks to AIS’s high-speed communication network, Thais will be able to watch 41 Thai athletes compete in 14 sports at the event up close. All of their competitions are broadcast live in Full HD for Thai audience.
Pratthana Leelapanang, Chief Consumer Business Officer at AIS, says his firm is determined to support the live broadcast of “Tokyo Olympics 2020” and thus joins the event as its official broadcaster. In all, AIS will broadcast all matches of 50 sports at the games. In all, a total of 339 events – covering over 4,800 hours – will be broadcast by AIS. Such coverage will feature more than 11,000 athletes from 200 countries around the world.
AIS has deployed Full-HD system for its broadcast so as to offer the audience impressive clarity for all 50 sports.
For the Tokyo Olympics 2020, AIS has prepared as many as 16 channels on AIS PLAY for the broadcast. Channels 1, 2, and 3 are dedicated to sports that have had Thai contestants and to highlight sports. More than 30 sports gurus are recruited to comment on the matches and athletes to bring entertainment to the next level. As for 13 other channels (Channels 4 -16), exclusive original content is broadcast from the games without any Thai dubbing or commentators. AIS customers may enjoy the original content of various sport matches as it is shown in Tokyo.
“Channels 1, 2 and 3 have sport gurus acting as commentators. Such content will also be presented as reruns later. But Channels 4 to 16 will feature original content from the games, with original sound at sport venues. Such content will be served as reruns too based on VDO-on-demand. Simply put, AIS will offer reruns of every match. You can check out what you have missed after the live broadcast ends,” Pratthana says.
Viewers can check program schedule at www.ais.th/olympics. AIS PLAY is accessible via cell phones, tablets, personal computers, AIS Play Box, smart TV, Apple TV and any internet-connected device.
Everyone can enjoy Olympics broadcasts by AIS. For non-customers, they can access Channels 1, 2, and 3 of AIS. For AIS customers, they can watch all 16 channels. To make it clear, AIS customers will have the privilege to enjoy content on Channels 4 to 16. Pratthana says these channels offer original content with original sound and are exclusive to AIS customers.
“We would like to thank our partners namely Nation Group, Khaosod, Matichon, PPTV, Manager and Siam Sport for contributing to our Olympics broadcast,” Pratthana says.
The opening ceremony of Tokyo Olympics 2020 took place on 23 July 2021 under the United by Emotion theme. The event started from 6am Bangkok time, spreading the emotions shared by the whole human race.
Pratthana adds that AIS is committed to bringing the content from the world-class sport event to Thais in hopes that people here will be able to cheer on athletes in spite of difficulty caused by COVID-19 pandemic. Guided by this commitment, AIS is firmly determined to contribute to the Olympics broadcast. This telecom operator trusts that united cheers from Thais for Thai athletes will rank among wonderful things that can happen in Thailand during the pandemic.
“When we watch the Olympics, we get inspired in many ways. The games are inspiring not just to youth but to all of us. Olympians have demonstrated determination, teamwork, and dedication. In Olympics, we have seen heroes in many dimensions and discovered plenty of inspirations,” Pratthana says.
Role of Official Broadcaster, Capabilities of Network
As an official broadcaster for online platforms, AIS serves Olympics content in a different way. Although territorial TV stations are also broadcaster, they put on air just some of the matches based on what they are licensed for.
AIS has confidence in its digital high-speed roadways, namely 5G network or high-speed network that use fiber cables, are big enough for its delivery of great services to customers and the public. Today, AIS infrastructure is solid enough to deliver data, information, news, entertainment and sport content such as the Olympic matches. AIS, therefore, is determined to join the broadcast of “Tokyo Olympics 2020”. Backed by its high-performance internet resources and platform, AIS is set to confidently fulfill its official-broadcaster duty.
“Presently, millions of people have used AIS Play services each month. Users have mostly consumed entertainment and news. We believe AIS PLAY is a perfect platform for serving world-class content to Thais. While we are confident about our broadcasting capabilities, we have also made solid preparations to ensure that matches are broadcast live for every interested viewer in Thailand,” he said.
According to Pratthana, AIS role in the broadcast of the previous Olympic games marked the small step towards the big broadcast of Tokyo Olympics 2020. The live broadcast of so many sport matches may still be new to Thais. Before this, Thai people have usually alternated between TV and cell phones in watching sport competitions. But AIS Play has brought all Olympic matches to their screen and released the program schedule. Viewers can check programming and decide which matches they will be interested in. Some matches may be held at the same time. AIS therefore has planned reruns, with archives developed from the broadcast on all its 16 AIS PLAY channels.
For sports in which Thai athletes will be competing or top sports at the Olympics, AIS has prepared sport gurus to educate and entertain the audience. Viewers, after all, may not know everything about these sports. When they are briefed about the background, they will have more fun watching the competition. AIS, moreover, has even produced a special program “Road to Olympics” especially for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
“Our goal is to enable Thais to fully watch Olympics. Thanks to our digital infrastructure and AIS Play, we are capable of serving dozens of million viewers simultaneously,” Pratthana says proudly.
During the past quarter, AIS has had 42.7 million cell-phone accounts while AIS Fibre has registered 1.4 million users. All these customers can Access AIS Play. Non-customers may also download AIS PLAY or browse into its website to watch Olympic content.
“Never before had Thais been able to watch all matches of the Olympics. AIS has made this first time possible with our solid digital infrastructure. After developing our network for communications and various applications, we have now used it to give Thais access to world-class sport event,” Pratthana continues.
After the Tokyo Olympics 2020 concludes, AIS will broadcast Paralympics.
Sport Gurus Juice Up Viewing Experiences
Weerasak Nilklad, a top sports commentator, says after being postponed by one year, Tokyo Olympics 2020 will also have to take place without any cheering fan at stadiums.
“I have been a commentator for Olympics since 1992 or Barcelona’ 92. But I had never seen Thai fans gain access to all Olympic matches like this time. This year, Thais will be able to watch all games across all sports for 480 hours. In the past, free TV stations had broadcast only some matches. There had been time limit. So, broadcast were just matches that Thai athletes participated in or competitions of hugely popular sports like football, running, and swimming. This is the first time Thais will be able to watch all matches from the Olympics legally,” Weerasak said.
Tokyo Olympics 2020 is close to Thais physically, given that the Tokyo and Bangkok times are just two hours different. This proximity makes it easier for Thais to enjoy live matches.
“We will be able to cheer on Thai athletes via various platforms. But AIS offers content of other matches and sports too. It presents all matches, all sports, for Thais to choose what they want to watch. Every sport is interesting. It is worth watching. AIS thus prepares all matches for us. You should not miss them,” Weerasak comments.
Songsak Wannawijit, a famous host of FM 99 Sport Radio, says Tokyo Olympics 2020 presents six new sports. All the new additions are extreme type like skateboard, surfing, climbing, karate, baseball (male athletes), and softball (female athletes). Baseball and softball, so far, are not entirely new. They had been included in Olympics until 2008. After being excluded for over 10 years, these two sports are now rejoining Olympics.
Public interest in Tokyo Olympics 2020 started in Thailand since the Olympic-flag run over a combined distance of 4,000 kilometers across the country. The last runner, Toon Bodyslam, brought the flag to the Suvarnabhumi Airport. At that time, Thais were very keen about Olympic Games and they were aware that Thai athletes would compete in Tokyo Olympics 2020. With Euro 2020 having just ended, COVID-19 pandemic raging, and most Thais now at home, watching Olympics games and cheering on Thai athletes in hopes of seeing Thailand clinch a gold medal promise to be precious time.
Chanatip Sonkham, the Thai Taekwando player who won a bronze from Olympics 2012, says the atmosphere at the current Olympics is different from before. In the past, Olympics were very colorful with so many athletes everywhere around stadiums and sport players’ villages. The mood was lively and interesting. Tokyo Olympics 2020, however, cannot normally be held in the same vibes. Athletes face practice restrictions, with various problems occurring during preparations. For example, athletes cannot train together. Neither can they conveniently travel to training facilities the way they used to do.
Once athletes reach stadiums and accommodation as participants of Tokyo Olympics 2020, they are barred from using common areas. No warmup is allowed in a gym. Violators will be immediately disqualified. Athletes therefore need to be more focused, more determined and more prepared.
Of 41 Thai athletes qualifying for Tokyo Olympics 2020, most have already attended Olympics a few times before. They are chasing their dreams of scoring a victory in an Olympic game. Even though the situation is not cheerful this year, the Thai Olympians are fiercely determined to fight for their dream.
“Watching Olympics gave me an inspiration. It spurred my interest in sports to the point that I started playing sports myself. Thanks to Olympics, I have found my idols. Sport events are very inspiring. Following in my idols’ footsteps, I embarked on the journey to pursue the same opportunity as theirs. I ended of dreaming of competing in Olympics. Through extensive training, I am really qualified as a Thai national athlete and come to Olympics,” Chanatip says.
She continues that because she discovered inspirations during her childhood, she got the courage to pursue a big dream and she believed many other kids must have felt the same way. Chanatip has a firm conviction that it is possible for everyone to follow his or her idol’s footstep. Watching sport matches have allowed her to see techniques used by foreign athletes and the atmosphere of sport events. In her view, the broadcast of Olympics give Thai youth opportunities to learn about foreign sport players’ techniques and styles. Moreover, the broadcast shows the results of Thai athletes’ determination. All Olympians have come a long way thanks to their hard work and efforts.
