Vice chair appointed acting MCOT president
MCOT appointed vice chairman Chakraphan Yomchinda as acting president yesterday, replacing Sura Gaintanasilp, executive vice president of the engineering group, who had recently resigned amid complaints from staff.
Chairman Sorajak Kasensuvan said yesterday that Sura had submitted his resignation as acting president of MCOT and also as acting executive vice president overseeing the television group since January 17. Sura called for transparency in the investigation process after nine complaint letters were sent by staff to the board of directors. The corporate governance committee will open an investigation soon.
The board also appointed the selection committee, led by director Premkamon Tinnakorn na Ayutthaya. The process will start soon and is expected to be finalised in the next seven to eight months.
The board also approved a strategic plan to strengthen programmes in Modernine TV and a programming revamp for its satellite TVs – MCOT1 and Asean TV.
Sorajak previously said that the change in Modernine TV must increase its viewer base as well as ratings so the company should invest more to support technology and equipment as well as employ new staff. Additionally, Asean TV would be developed into an international television channel to export Thai culture, music and entertainment content.
Apart from new presentation, the company is planning to hire helicopters for news-gathering. The company expects to achieve Bt2 billion profits this year, up from Bt1.6 billion last year.
In addition to the programming revamp at Asean TV, he said that this satellite TV channel would be developed into an international channel, aiming to follow the model of public broadcasters abroad like China’s CCTV, Qatar’s al-Jazeera and the British Broadcasting Corporation. Its programming would span news, information, culture, music and entertainment.
