CTH sees disappointing subscriptions, piracy of broadcast rights

Chief executive officer Kittsanan Ngampathipong preferred not to disclose the revised target for the end of its first season in mid-2014. The original plan was to have 1.6 million subscribers by next June. 

“We have witnessed a huge drop to 3,000 monthly orders from 6,000, mainly due to heavy rain in many provinces,” Kittsanan said.

Piracy of English Premier League broadcasts, to which CTH owns the local rights, is another key problem. To deal with this, he said the company had established a special team comprising legal representatives from the EPL, the Department of Special Investigation, police officers and its CTH’s own legal team to crack down local cable operators, Internet TV operators, hotels, pubs and restaurants that violate the broadcast rights.

The company also estimated that 10 per cent of about 20,000 corporate clients were in violation.

So far, 800,000 CTH set-top boxes have been deployed but only 500,000 installed. Of these, 65 per cent are for local cable-TV networks and the rest in C- and Ku-band satellite-TV formats.

CTH also plans to launch Internet broadband service in the second quarter of next year, and will expand it into neighbouring countries such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. 

Last week, CTH formed a joint venture, CTH SS Television, in Laos with two local partners, the communications and broadcasting business TK Group and broadcaster SSN. With an investment of about Bt100 million, CTH has bought up a 60-per-cent majority holding in the joint venture, while the Laotian partners own the remainder.

The JV company will broadcast EPL soccer matches as well as CTH’s own content, including 10 Thai channels, in Laos. It will also enter the broadband Internet business in Vientiane around the middle of next year. 

Kittsanan said CTH was planning to expand its content and services to cover four main provinces in Laos, namely Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Champasak and Suvannaket. 

He added that CTH SSN aimed to secure about 400,000 subscribers next year. The company expects to break even within three years.