Workpoint budgets Bt900m for its variety TV channel
Play
Workpoint Entertainment has earmarked Bt900 million for its free-TV station next year in a bid to maintain its ranking as the top terrestrial-based digital-TV company in terms of audience rating.
The company hopes to generate revenue of Bt1.8 billion from digital-TV business during 2015.Some Bt550 million to Bt600 million of the investment sum will go to content development and acquiring foreign shows.
The remainder will be spent on the construction of seven studios located on a 3-rai (0.48 hectare) plot in the same location as its head office, chief financial officer Surakarn Sirimothya said yesterday.
The expansion is aimed at meeting increasing demand from Workpoint Creative TV – the company’s variety digital channel – in the near future, after the channel was ranked No 1 in the digital-TV segment in the latest AGB Nielsen audience survey. The survey excluded two major analogue stations, TV Channel 7 and Channel 3, which simulcast programmes via their digital-TV channels.
Workpoint Creative TV is operated by Thai Broadcast, a subsidiary of Workpoint Entertainment, which is a leading TV-content production house.Workpoint Entertainment chief executive officer Panya Nirankul said that under next year’s strategy, the company would focus more on variety programmes, which were considered to be its unique selling point.
The company has about 20 game shows, cartoons and dramas in the pipeline for next year, he said.
Although Workpoint Entertainment runs its own digital free-TV station, high-rating shows produced by the company for Channel 3 remain unchanged because the broadcasting partner maintains a strong position in the industry, said Chalakorn Panyashom, executive vice president for television business.
However, the company is considering ceasing the supply of six shows for the Army’s TV5 station and shifting the broadcasting of those programmes to Workpoint TV instead, he said. The company has to make preparations for the transformation of TV5 into a public digital-TV channel, he explained.
The company expects to generate revenue of Bt800 million from digital-TV business this year, rising sharply to about Bt1.8 billion next year, when income from all sources will be around Bt3 billion.
The remaining 40 per cent of next year’s revenue will come from content production for analogue channels, event organising and special projects, said Chalakorn.
