Lower ad spending dampens MCOT revenue
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MCOT witnessed only a slight increase in revenue in the second quarter, due to lower advertising spending via its Modernine TV station and intense competition among the two market leaders in the television broadcasting industry.
The state media enterprise reported yesterday in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that its revenue had increased by just 2 per cent to Bt1.53 billion, from Bt1.5 billion in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the overall advertising industry in the first half of the year experienced a 3-per-cent rise to Bt34.2 billion, from Bt32.9 billion in the same period a year ago.
MCOT attributed the small revenue increase to a decline in TV ad spending by leading international product manufacturers and intense competition among market leaders like BEC Channel 3 and BBTV Channel 7, particularly during super-prime time.
Following this trend, MCOT’s second-quarter TV revenue – a key income generator for the company – decreased by 3 per cent to Bt946 million, compared to the same period last year.
Additionally, most advertisers chose to spend their advertising budgets through the two largest broadcasters, with Modernine TV ranked the third-largest in the sector.
The company also said the revenue fall derived partly from new news programmes in the morning and late-night slots, which resulted from its policy to produce its own programming in place of previous co-produced programmes.
These new programmes have, however, built up an audience base and continuously acquired better ratings, MCOT said in the statement, adding that this will contribute additional revenue in the long term.
Moreover, the number of customers from the government sector has been growing, with business from the Office of the Permanent Bureau, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, the Public Health Ministry, the Social Security Office, and the National Village and Urban Community Fund Office.
With regard to new media business, a slight increase was attributable to 17 additional satellite-TV channels and KU-band satellite transponder rental.
Meanwhile, radio revenue increased by 5 per cent, year on year.
Net profit in the second quarter was Bt446 million, virtually the same as in April to June last year.
