NOW Channel to open new studio in Feb

The new studio will be opened in February under the “Creative Community” concept and will be the main one operated by Now Channel. It will also be a space for creative people and professionals to meet and exchange ideas through interesting activities hosted by Now.
Duangkamol Chotana, NMG president, said opening the new studio for Now Channel would be in line with the group’s plan next year to promote a “touch point” for its digital TV channel in communicating its brand and connecting directly with the viewers, in the form of year-around activities.
She anticipated that the overall advertising industry this quarter would not yet get back to normal, resulting in a slower recovery of revenue generated by its print operations, which are lower than expected.
She said the rebound of advertising spending in the third quarter had not yet clearly affected the growth of the media and advertising industries. Entering the second quarter, there were some signs that fourth-quarter performance would return to normal.
“We expect that the group’s total revenues will recover slowly, although the revenue from our two digital TV channels – Nation TV at Channel 22 and Now at Channel 26 – have posted a growth tendency. However, the advertising revenues contributed by our three newspapers have been affected negatively by the slow recovery of the economy. “As a result, the increase of NMG’s total revenues has been mainly contributed by the two digital TV channels, while our print media have seen a slow recovery.”
Duangkamol said that during its first seven months on the air, Now had enjoyed continuous growth thanks to the clear market positioning of the channel, which focuses on news and variety programmes that actually serve the lifestyles of businesspeople, investors, and urban viewers.
“Now digital Channel 26 has a clear target of viewers based on the strength of its content covering both economic and business issues, which have received a good response from advertisers and our target viewers,” she said.
“Under the business plan for next year, Now Channel will focus on developing a larger variety of content to expand its viewer base, and to be in line with the ‘Biz-Life-Variety’ concept. It will cover the economy, business and investment, as well as entertainment and quality lifestyles.”
She added that next year, Now Channel would offer four new reality programmes, as well as imported entertainment shows from abroad.
NMG expects total revenue to reach Bt3.5 billion next year, of which half be would from its television business and the rest from print media. The group’s two digital TV channels will be the key drivers of revenue growth as the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission will have distributed vouchers towards the purchase of digital set-top boxes to more than 8 million households throughout the Kingdom by the end of this year.
Nation Broadcasting Corporation president Adisak Limprungpatanakij said the company would continue seeking strong partners and would focus on producing documentaries to serve both the local and the overseas market. NBC will also introduce a new logo for Nation TV channel on January 1. NBC plans to spend Bt100 million next year on programme development, focusing on mobile content.