True4U budgets Bt500m content development
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True4U TV, the terrestrial-based digital TV business arm of True Corporation, is earmarking Bt500 million for content development in the remaining months of this year after witnessing promising signs in the industry.
This is half of its original plan to spend about Bt1 billion on producing dramas, lifestyle programmes and other contents and on acquiring international titles such as EXO’s “Showtime”, a daily series on South Korean’s boy band EXO, and sports spectaculars like the UEFA Champions League.
Managing director Rungfa Kiatipoj acknowledged yesterday that her company had to review its business plan on a monthly basis after experiencing uncertainties in the industry since the test run of digital terrestrial TV in April.
It had to revise its strategy several times. However, viewership continues to rise. Nielsen (Thailand) reported that last month, about 15 million people had already watched digital TV, translating to a 15-per-cent share of the 22 million households in the country.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission expects to give away vouchers to all local households to purchase receivers in October after many delays. This will boost digital TV penetration in the near future. “The market share of digital TV is expected to rise further to about 20-30 per cent next year,” he said.
True4U now has the confidence to lavish money on quality contents for prime time from 7-10pm.
The TV station would like to come out among the top three in audience ratings next year. According to Nielsen, True4U ranked fourth with 0.2 point after Thairath TV and Workpoint Creative TV with 0.22 each and RS Channel 8 with 0.23. The survey covers August 20 to last Tuesday.
Other key attractions on the channel are “Academy Fantasia Season 11” and Thai Premiere League matches.
The station bills advertisers Bt25,000-Bt100,000 per minute but each deal can be customised or tailor made.
