Learning the lessons of Euro 2012 debacle
Thais must learn a lesson from last week's dispute over the Euro 2012 football tournament to understand that there are many challenges in the rapidly changing broadcasting industry as it awaits the coming rules and regulations by the National Broadcastin
CABLE AND SATELLITE TV PENETRATION IS RISING WITHOUT SUITABLE RULES
By the end of this year, cable and satellite TV penetration is estimated to reach 60 to 70 per cent of 22 million households in the Kingdom, up from 50 per cent last year. The growth was driven by both demand and supply.
In 2006, the Public Relations Department, which was responsible for the granting and renewing of broadcasting licences for cable and satellite TV stations, agreed to let them show up to six minutes of commercials per hour to help them operate a sustainable business.
Such a change lured new cable and satellite TV operators to enter the market. This coincided with a sharp drop in prices of satellite TV sets.
Since satellite TV sets were affordable, local households whose TV sets received weak terrestrial signals via traditional antennas (rooftop and rabbit ear TV antennas) used them instead to watch free-TV programmes.
Because the popularity of satellite TV brought an expanded viewer base, some advertisers began spending on those channels. Nielsen Thailand found that last year the country had more than 500 satellite TV channels and more than 300 cable TV channels to cash in on this opportunity.
RIGHTS OWNERS ARE MORE FOCUSED ON COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS
However, the copyrighted content became a topic of controversy in the past two years when music and entertainment company RS, which held all rights to broadcast the FIFA World Cup 2010 tournament in the country, received FIFA’s notification letter, calling for the company to control satellite signal carrying live matches within the Kingdom, after the signal had interfered in the holder’s rights in other countries. The company solved this problem by transmitting encrypted signals to c-band satellite TV sets equipped with conditioned access system. But the process left satellite TV households with a black screen.
Why did such a problem not occur in similar football tournaments in the past decade? Nussara Theaunthad, marketing specialist at Thaicom’s DTV Service, explained that during that time, cable and satellite TV penetration remained low.
In fact, free-TV channels, including BEC’s ThaiTV3, Royal Army’s TV5, BBTV’s Channel 7, MCOT’s Modernine TV, Channel 11 and Thai Public Broadcasting Service (ThaiPBS), transmit their analogue terrestrial broadcasting signal directly to TV receivers. Their main broadcast towers also uplink and downlink satellite TV signals to rebroadcast stations in remote areas before converting it into analogue terrestrial signals and transmitting it to TV receivers.
CUSTOMERS ARE CONFUSED ABOUT BASIC FREE-TV BROADCASTING SERVICES
Having the uplink and downlink satellite TV signal, satellite TV viewers are able to watch unencrypted programmes from free-TV channels via their set-top boxes directly. This helps them understand that such broadcasting is a basic service despite the fact that only free TV content carried over analogue terrestrial signals are included.
Thanachai Wongthongsri, executive vice president for administration at MCOT, said that his company has a concession agreement with Bangkok Entertainment Company (BEC) for operating Thai TV3, an analogue terrestrial free to air television network. Also, Modernine TV and other free-to-air TV stations are analogue terrestrial TV channels.
BUSINESS OPERATORS GAIN BENEFITS WHILE WAITING FOR NEW RULES
Last week, the controversy over copyrighted content resurfaced when the consumer rights protection groups, government agencies and related parties forcing GMM Grammy, which holds all rights to broadcast the Euro 2012 tournament in Thailand, to negotiate with the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) to change its contract to allow free TV providers Thai TV3, TV5 and Modernine TV to transmit the satellite signal of live matches to more than 10 million satellite TV receivers equipped with the condition access system.
But under high competition among major players in today’s more sophisticated satellite TV business, GMM Grammy recently entered into this market with high hopes to sell 1.5 million GMM Z set-top boxes this year. The Euro 2012 programme is a crucial strategy to drive sales because satellite TV viewers can only watch live matches via GMM Z set-top boxes or DTV’s HDTV boxes, which are operated by its business partner’s DTV service.
Additionally, the company delivers free TV exposure through sub-licensing rights on the analogue terrestrial signal only.
With a more sophisticated satellite TV business and the ongoing transformation from analogue to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting, the NBTC’s coming regulations to govern the industry must maintain business integrity, fair competition and protection of customer rights.
