GMM Grammy expects to kick off pay-TV service soon
Music and entertainment giant GMM Grammy will launch a pay-TV service within the next couple of months after the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission grants licences for pay-TV service providers in August.
Chairman Paiboon Damrong-chaitham said yesterday that the company wanted to ensure that the regulations to govern satellite and pay-TV service providers were complete and ready for all players.
Once licensing comes into effect, the company is prepared to launch at least 10 pay-TV channels, he said.
Paiboon added that his company would offer prepaid service to registered customers who want to access pay-TV content on its 10 special channels via GMM Z satellite TV receivers. For example, the package that costs Bt300 monthly offers five or six sports channels, and the Bt200 package offers four entertainment channels.
The upcoming pay-TV services will be run by GMM Z, the satellite-broadcasting unit of GMM Grammy. GMM Z is also the trader and distributor of satellite TV set-top boxes under the same name.
Apart from pay TV, the company offers four special channels: GMM Z Hits, GMM Z Theatre, GMM Z Genius and GMM Sports. Customers will get access to these channels for free via GMM Z satellite receivers.
After enjoying a million sales of its set-top boxes during the recent Euro 2012 soccer tournament, GMM Z plans to add more exclusive content to its four special channels.
It will release the details on entertainment content tomorrow. Yesterday it announced it would broadcast live English Capital One Cup 2012/13, which begins on August 17, and three consecutive seasons of the Championship League One and League Two from the 2012-13 to 2014-15 seasons, which begin early next month. Those live broadcasting services will be offered on GMM Sport Channel.
GMM Z aims to sell another 1 million boxes by the end of this year.
It has also partnered with Dynasat, local manufacturer, trader and distributor of satellite TV receivers, to introduce a new category of set-top box called GMM Z Mini. Via this Bt400 set-top box, customers are able to access free-to-air channels only. GMM Z’s special channels are excluded. This box can plug into both C- and Ku-band satellite dishes.
Paiboon said the company targeted sales of 500,000 GMM Z Mini boxes by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the head of GMM Grammy added that the company had earmarked an extra budget of Bt500 million to invest in development of its self-produced content for screening on its free-to-air satellite channels. These include Acts Channel, Bang Channel, Fan TV, Green Channel, Money Channel, Japan Korea Network, Saranair Channel, MAXXI TV and O Shopping. The operating cost per channel is normally about Bt100 million a year.
