MCOT banking on revamp

Last year MCOT’s revenue slipped by 1 per cent to Bt5.31 billion and net profit by 5 per cent to Bt1.37 billion.
Chakraphan Yomchinda, vice chairman and acting president, said yesterday that revenues from the television and radio business were washed away by the massive floods in the fourth quarter of last year.
During the quarter, overall advertising spending fell by 15 per cent on year.
Modernine TV suffered a 4-per-cent decline in revenue to Bt3.39 billion from Bt3.53 billion while MCOT’s radio stations faced a 5-per-cent fall in revenue to Bt855 million from Bt899 million. However, advertising spending will be back to normal by the end of this quarter, he said.
This year, MCOT will focus on producing its own programmes, particularly news for Modernine TV, and repositioning its two satellite TV channels – MCOT 1 to MCOT Insight and ASEAN TV to MCOT Global.
Programmes produced in-house will increase to 51 per cent of total time slot, from 43 per cent now, while the risk from jointly produced programmes will be reduced by cutting their share to 29 per cent from 39 per cent now.
Viewers will on April 25 see the new look for news programmes at ModernineTV with a new studio equipped with an advanced video wall and bird’s-eye view news gathered by helicopter. MCOT Poll will also be introduced.
Kematas Paladesh, vice president for marketing, said Modernine TV planned to expand its prime-time slots while running popular content like sports in non-prime time period to improve ratings.
The company expects to earn Bt2 billion this year, up from Bt1.6 billion last year.