Channel 5

The Royal Thai Army Radio and Television Station, broadcasting as Channel 5 or TV5HD, is Thailand’s military broadcaster and the country’s only national digital terrestrial service licensed as public-service television Type 2, whose principal purpose is state security or public safety. Launched in 1958, it is operated within the Royal Thai Army command structure, which holds the licence, appoints its Director-General from among serving generals, and staffs it with military personnel. The station generates substantial commercial and off-budget income, principally from operating two of Thailand’s five national digital multiplexes, and does not publish financial statements.

Media assets

Television: Channel 5

Radio: FM94 and a radio news centre, alongside the Royal Thai Army’s wider radio holdings

Channel 5 marked its 66th year in 2024. Its licence category has no counterpart elsewhere in Thai broadcasting: Thai PBS holds a public service licence under its own Act, the Public Relations Department broadcasts as a government department, and MCOT holds commercial licences as a listed state enterprise. Channel 5 alone is licensed to a branch of the armed forces on state security grounds.

Ownership and governance

The Royal Thai Army holds the broadcasting licence in its capacity as a juristic person. Channel 5’s own legal status is unusually unclear: the parliamentary investigation found it is generally treated as an army unit, while its operating income is managed as Category 2 off-budget funds rather than consolidated into the army’s ordinary accounts. Committee members were also told that the station’s accounts had not previously been audited, with serious examination beginning only from the 2023 accounting cycle.

Command is military and rotates with army postings rather than with any broadcasting consideration. General Niran Srikacha held the post in early 2024 and General Chamnan Changsat by April that year; Lieutenant General Kitti Somsanan succeeded Chamnan on 10 October 2024; and Lieutenant General Awut Phutthaamnuay took over from Kitti with effect from 1 October 2025, appointed by order of the Army Commander. On taking office he stated that he would follow Royal Thai Army policy. Handover ceremonies include the transfer of unit command and the unit standard, the form used across army units. The station is staffed substantially by military personnel; the People’s Party has estimated the number at between 400 and 500.

A military-controlled company sits alongside the station. It was registered on 14 March 1997 as ททบ.5 Company Limited by resolution of the Channel 5 executive board, with initial registered capital of 250 million baht and the Royal Thai Army holding all shares, established as a vehicle for conducting business on the station’s behalf. It was renamed RTA Entertainment in 2004 and RTA Enterprise in 2021, with subsidiaries including RTA Holding, Digihub (168) and Thai Premium Butcher. The parliamentary investigation documented substantial historical financial and governance connections between the station and the company, including overlapping management and debts exceeding 1 billion baht, since analysed by the committee as doubtful of recovery. By 2022 and 2023 those institutional links had been loosened, and Channel 5 representatives characterised the remaining relationship principally as one of debtor and creditor.

Channel 5’s transmission licences fall under the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission. Thailand’s digital terrestrial licences expire in 2029, and the NBTC has consulted on a television and broadcasting roadmap for 2026 to 2030, with consideration continuing in July 2026.

The political environment changed repeatedly during the period. The Constitutional Court removed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on 29 August 2025; Anutin Charnvirakul took office in September and dissolved Parliament in December; Bhumjaithai won a plurality on 8 February 2026 and Anutin was reconfirmed on 19 March 2026. Channel 5’s command structure was unaffected.

Source of funding and budget

Channel 5 finances itself from commercial and off-budget income rather than from a recurrent appropriation, and its revenues are declining.

Evidence gathered by the parliamentary committee gives the clearest picture available. Total revenue across all Channel 5 businesses, comprising the 5HD channel, the TGN global network service, the two digital multiplexes and facilities, fell continuously from 1,464.4 million baht in 2017 to about 1,016.5 million baht in 2023. Multiplex operations accounted for 801.3 million baht of the 2023 figure. Calculating independently from market rental rates of 10.5 million baht a month for a high-definition slot and 3.5 million for standard definition, the committee estimated annual multiplex revenue at about 882 million baht. The station reported a profit of about 180 million baht in 2017 and continuous losses from 2018 through 2023, which it described to the committee as averaging roughly 100 million baht a year without specifying whether they arose from station operations or from the multiplex business.

Those losses do not convert commercial revenue into state funding, and the public support Channel 5 does receive has never been quantified. Military personnel at the station draw army salaries from the national budget in addition to their station remuneration, and the spectrum it uses is public property allocated without competition on security grounds.

The ratio cannot be calculated, because the accounts are not available. State Media Monitor identified no publicly available Channel 5 financial statements. The Ministry of Defence is the only Thai ministry that divides its off-budget funds into two categories, and under the second each service and service enterprise sets its own management rules, placing the money outside the scrutiny applied to other off-budget funds. The parliamentary budget committee requested Channel 5’s accounts across the 2020 to 2025 financial years without success, and in August 2025 the committee examining military businesses reported that it had been seeking the accounts for more than seventeen months without obtaining army consent for disclosure. Thai PBS and the Public Relations Department, the other holders of non-commercial licences, both publish their financial statements.

The question surfaced publicly during the 2026 election campaign. In a televised debate in December 2025, General Rangsee Kitiyanasap, a former Director-General of Channel 5 and leader of the Setthakij Party, argued that the station had historically sustained itself without national or army budget support and that the Office of the Auditor General could not therefore examine it. The People’s Party publicly disputed that account, pointing to army-paid salaries, the use of public spectrum and the off-budget fund structure. State Media Monitor treats the exchange as a disagreement between political actors rather than as settled fact on either side. The party’s associated reform plan, an opposition proposal advanced during the campaign rather than government policy, would abolish the second category of off-budget funds, transfer the MUX2 and MUX5 licences to the Public Relations Department, and return the broadcasting spectrum.

Editorial independence

No statute protects editorial independence at Channel 5, and no mechanism exists that could deliver it. The station operates within a branch of the armed forces, is commanded by a serving general appointed by the Army Commander, and is staffed by personnel whose careers are governed by military hierarchy. Its licence category defines its principal purpose as state security or public safety. There is no board, no charter, no editorial code enforceable against the army, and no independent complaints mechanism. The current Director-General stated on taking office that he would follow Royal Thai Army policy.

Media analysts and journalists consulted for State Media Monitor in March 2023, January 2024, March 2025 and April 2026 describe programming aligned with the army’s communication priorities, with political and civil society developments framed through stability, order and national unity. Critical coverage of the armed forces does not feature.

The station’s practical reach is small. Data cited to the parliamentary committee placed Channel 5 19th among Thailand’s digital terrestrial channels, with an average audience of about 8,915 viewers at a given time against a cumulative reach of 7.1 million. Its editorial influence is now considerably smaller than its licence and spectrum holdings imply.

AI and digital policy

State Media Monitor identified no publicly accessible Channel 5 or Royal Thai Army policy governing the use of artificial intelligence in news production, the disclosure of AI-assisted or AI-generated material to audiences, or the use of synthetic presenters. Given that the station publishes neither accounts nor editorial standards, the absence of a retrievable AI policy is consistent with its general disclosure practice rather than a separate finding.

Classification rationale

Channel 5 is reclassified Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu) in 2026, from State-Controlled (SC).

It is state-operated and state-governed without qualification. The broadcasting licence is held by the Royal Thai Army, and Channel 5 operates within the army command structure rather than through a separate public media corporation or arm’s-length governing body. Its Director-General is appointed through military command, leadership rotates with army postings and retirement, and no civilian appointing mechanism or protected tenure exists.

Its editorial agenda is directed by the state. The licence is a public-service Type 2 licence whose principal purpose is state security or public safety. The current Director-General was appointed by order of the Army Commander and stated on taking office that he would follow Royal Thai Army policy. Interview evidence gathered across four rounds describes output aligned with army communication priorities and little space for critical scrutiny of the armed forces.

The funding condition required for State-Controlled is not demonstrated. Channel 5 receives public support through its integration into the army, including military personnel whose salaries are paid by the state, but no public evidence establishes that qualifying state support accounts for at least half of its annual resources. The station generates substantial commercial and off-budget income, principally from operating the MUX2 and MUX5 networks and from airtime and related activities, with parliamentary evidence placing multiplex revenue alone in the hundreds of millions of baht annually. Because Channel 5 does not publish financial statements and parliamentary committees have been unable to obtain them, the precise ratio cannot be calculated, and predominant state funding cannot be assumed.

The shift from SC to CaPu is therefore a classification correction driven by stronger financial evidence rather than by any improvement in governance or editorial independence. Channel 5 remains among the most directly state-managed outlets in the Thai media system.

August 2026