Pay TV set to grow amid competition, meet hears

Yesterday CASBAA, an association promoting multi-channel television in Asia, held a forum called “Thailand in View”. Local and international experts shared their expertise and insights about how the TV industry in Thailand would develop after the introduction of digital terrestrial broadcasting and the aggressive expansion of cable and satellite TV operators.

Sinthu Peatrarut, managing director for media client leadership at Nielsen (Thailand), said pay-TV business was expected to grow 26.6 per cent to Bt12.21 billion from Bt9.65 billion last year. It will also become more diverse in content, the number of new players, accessibility and packages. 

“Advertising spending continues to increase where advertisers have more options to invest, especially on the niche market on pay TV with the very reasonable return on investment,” Sinthu said. 

He also noted that of the 22.6 million households in the Kingdom, more than 14.5 million had access to free-to-air TV and extra services via satellite. Therefore, there is room to grow for pay TV service in areas served by satellite.

However, the viewing pattern among Thais has remained unchanged, as they mostly watch free-TV programmes on the six incumbent analog channels, according to the latest survey by Nielsen Thailand.

Additionally, CASBAA’s “Thailand in View” report revealed that the pay-TV market had welcomed new players including GMM Z, CTH, RS and small cable TV operators like CNN in the Eastern region. This creates intense competition among dominant pay-TV operator TrueVisions and those newcomers. 

To increase advertising spending their channels, executives from leading media agencies including IPG Mediabrands, TBWA/Thailand, Mindshare and Ominicom Media Group Thailand suggested in CASBAA’s seminar that satellite and cable TV operators should work together to promote their platforms as key to reaching a mass audience. 

Adisak Limprungpatanakij, president of Nation Broadcasting Corp, and RS chief operating officer Pornpan Techarungchaikul agreed that the transition from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting this year would open more doors for satellite TV operators to shift to the terrestrial platform, which would help them improve ratings and revenue. 

 

Penetration over 65% 

Adisak said satellite and cable TV accounted for 13 per cent of total advertising spending, while their penetration had reached more than 65 per cent of households.

Pornpan added that once the 48 digital terrestrial TV channels are put in place, this would be a game changer, as people would have many choices on top of the more than 500 satellite and cable channels and six free-TV channels. 

To underline this point, Sinthu suggested: “Content is still king where picture clarity is queen, and those two elements will be the key to attract audiences.” 

Sompan Charumilinda, executive vice chairman of TrueVisions, the country’s leading subscription-based TV operator, predicted that the arrival of digital terrestrial TV would expand advertising spending to more than Bt100 billion from Bt70 billion now. 

TrueVisions yesterday expressed its interest in securing three licences for digital terrestrial TV.