Music, satellite TV key driver for GMM Grammy
DESPITE sluggish performance by the media industry, GMM Grammy, the country's largest music and entertainment company, banks on its music and satellite TV business to maintain its growth.
“Our key businesses like music and satellite TV are still right on track,” Boosaba Daorueng, group chief executive officer of GMM Grammy, said yesterday.
Director Krij Thomas, who takes care of the music business, said that after the company expanded the distribution channels for digital music formats through partners like the KKBox application and an official account on YouTube, the company witnessed improved viewership and advertising revenue.
He said these rose by about 20 per cent in the first three quarters compared with the same period last year.
Among business activities in its satellite TV business, home-shopping appears to be a rising star for the company. It earns daily sales of Bt3 million, and is expected to create revenue of Bt1.1 billion this year, or about 95-per-cent growth from 2013.
Meanwhile, there should be scope for additional revenue and a wider audience from product tie-ins and other activities with terrestrial-based digital TV channels.
However, Boosaba acknowledged that obtaining two digital-TV licences from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to run variety channels in high and standard definition might turn out to be a big cost burden for the company over the next couple of years. Therefore it is putting more focus on this new business to make it profitable within five years, creating high-impact content to attract both audiences and advertising revenue.
Yesterday, GMM Grammy announced its expansion into online gaming. “Gworld Live Another Life” is a 3D social-network business. It is run by its subsidiary GDC under a Bt30-million investment financed by GMM Grammy.
The aim is to strengthen the bond between GMM Grammy and game fans on the digital platform in today’s technologically advanced world.
It combines various popular components of GMM Grammy, such as music, movies, series, and “The Star” reality singing competition.
Boosaba declined to give a financial forecast for this year. But an analyst at Bualuang Securities projected that GMM Grammy would post a consolidated net loss of Bt2.48 billion, shallower by 4 per cent from its previous number, led by a lower net loss from digital TV than previously assumed.
