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Voucher value for box purchase set at Bt1,000
The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund for the Public Interest yesterday set the value of the vouchers to be given away to households to buy a terrestrial digital TV set-top box at Bt1,000, said Takorn Tantasit, secretary-general of the fund.
At this value, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is expected to need Bt25 billion to subsidise these boxes for 25 million households.
However, it remains to be seen when the NBTC can start sending out the boxes. It will meet on Friday if it has to hold a public hearings on the distribution.
The hearings will take 30 days to finish. If hearings have to be held, the NBTC will start giving away the boxes in August. If hearings are not needed, it can start distribution next month, said Takorn, who also serves as NBTC secretary-general.
The NBTC will use money from the fund to finance the vouchers.
The Radio-Television Broadcasting Professionals Federation submitted a letter to the fund asking it hurry with finalising the voucher value.
Chamnan Siritan, president of the federation, said the fund should conclude the value and start to mailing the vouchers from July-August since all 24 digital free TV operators have been hit by the economic slowdown and downsizing of advertising budgets.
“Faster distribution would help increase viewers for all 24 channels,” she said.
Usanee Mongkolporn, The Nation
Fund investment
Mark Mobius’s Franklin Templeton Investments fund has taken a 10-per-cent stake in cosmetics firm Beauty Community Plc for Bt55 million, the Thai company said in a statement yesterday.
Beauty Community said its major shareholders sold 30 million shares at an average price of Bt18.50 via big-lot transactions on the Thai stock market.
The sellers included Tanyapon Kraibhubes, wife of the company’s founder Suwin.
The price was a 13-per-cent discount to Wednesday’s close of Bt21.30. Beauty shares reversed an earlier loss and rose nearly 2 per cent. – Reuters
Price-freeze sought
The Commerce Ministry will meet with major manufacturers of consumer products today to ask for their cooperation in freezing retail prices on 205 items for six months.
The items are on the ministry’s monitoring list, which means their prices cannot be raised without permission. The move is part of the National Council for Peace and Order’s policy of easing people’s living burden.
Chirathivats top
Amid the political unrest, the Chirathivat family, which owns Central Group, became the richest billionaires in Thailand this year, overtaking agribusiness tycoon Dhanin Chearavanont, according to Forbes Thailand Magazine’s June issue.
The Chirathivats, with Central Retail as their biggest asset, rose to No 1 for the first time, with Bt413.96 billion.
Dhanin, who manages the agribusiness conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, slipped to second with assets of Bt374.84 billion.
Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, who manages Thai Beverage, the brewer of Chang Beer, is the country’s third richest with total assets of Bt368.32 billion. Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is 10th with Bt53.78 billion.
Cut in China forecast
The International Monetary Fund cut its 2015 economic growth forecast for China to about 7 per cent, but urged authorities to avoid further stimulus measures and concentrate on curtailing financial risks instead.
In remarks that projected confidence in the near-term health of the world’s second-biggest economy, the IMF said Beijing must keep its word on implementing reforms that will correct imbalances, including a “moderately undervalued” yuan.
Specifically, the IMF said conditions are right for China to take the next step in freeing its interest rates market, challenging the view held by some senior Chinese officials that the country is not yet ready for such a move.
Shopping channel
TV Direct Plc, a distributor of products and services via multichannel marketing, is linking up with Telekom Malaysia to launch Malaysia’s first 24-hour TV home shopping channel.
CEO Tsongpol Chanmarkij said yesterday that TV Direct will invest over Bt90 million outside Thailand, with Bt50 million allocated for Malaysia – a vital foreign market in this region.
TV Direct has three branches in the neighbouring country with two more on the way later this year.
TV Direct will set up a separate management team for each country – Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Each will be headed by a regional marketing manager from TV Direct Thailand.
TV Direct hopes to generate Bt400 million-Bt600 million in revenue in five years through its 99.98 per cent owned subsidiary TV Direct Indochina.
