MCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 media

Mass media

Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

 conglomerate

Conglomerate (company)

A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...

. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand. In August 2004, the Thai government

Politics of Thailand

The politics of Thailand are currently conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and a hereditary monarch is head of state. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislative branches.Thai kingdoms and late...

 corporatized the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand and renamed it MCOT Pcl. The company was partially privatized in an initial public offering

Initial public offering

An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...

 later that same year, with the Thai Ministry of Finance retaining a 77 percent stake.

Headquartered in Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

, MCOT operates a television station, Modernine TV (formerly Channel 9),MCOT Sattlelite TV (MCOT TV - ASEAN TV), and a nationwide network of 62 radio stations. The company also owns TV Channel 3

Channel 3 (Thailand)

Thailand Colour Television Channel 3 is a Thailand television channel. The headquarters are located in Bangkok, Thailand. The channel was established in 1970.The owner of the channel is BEC-TERO.- Ident :-Broadcast times:...

, but contracts the management of that station out to a private operator, BEC World. In addition, MCOT operates the Thai News Agency (TNA

TNA

TNA may refer to:*Tamil National Alliance, a political coalition in Sri Lanka*The National Archives, in the United Kingdom*The New Amsterdams, a band*Threose nucleic acid, an analog of the nucleic acid DNA*Tonga Nurses' Association...

) wire service

News agency

A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...

.

Initial Public Offering

The Ministry of Finance diluted its 100% ownership of MCOT to 75% in a 2004 IPO. The IPO was designed to allocate as much stock as possible to retail investors, and in accordance with Thai law, foreign investors could not hold more than 15% of the offering. Investors subscribing to less than 100,000 Baht of shares were given first priority, and shares were sold via commercial banks rather than investment banks or brokers.

External links

• MCOT News and Entertainment - Home Page (in Thai)
• MCOT - TNA English News (in English)
• MCOT - About MCOT (in English)