In the highly competitive TV industry, 'broadcasters need brand awareness'

Khanokkhan Prajongsangsri, business director for investment and knowledge at IPG Mediabrands, said audiences learned about terrestrial-based digital TV after its commercial launch last April.
Referring to the digital-TV survey conducted by the Media Advertising Agency of Thailand from January 16-24, Khanokkhan, who is also a member of the MAAT, said that of the 209 people polled, 67 per cent said they had installed digital TV receivers at their homes as there were more choices.
However, the respondents said they wanted to know more about all the programmes and details about each TV station before viewing them, so the digital stations should focus more on brand communications to the mass audience to raise their awareness.
“Some digital TV stations offer good-quality programmes but their audience ratings are still low because people do not know much about the programmes,” she said.
MAAT chairwoman Wannee Ruttanaphon said that besides content quality, a channel’s awareness among key audiences was very important to boost its ratings.
Stations will continue investing on advertising via various media to publicise their brands and programmes, she said.
According to Nielsen Media Research AQX, since the launch of digital terrestrial TV, broadcasters’ ad expenditures have reached Bt322.7 million. PPTV is the biggest spender by using Bt52.2 million to promote its high-definition channel, followed by Mono 29 at Bt37.6 million, GMM Grammy’s One at Bt29.3 million, Channel 3 at Bt28.5 million and Springnews TV at Bt23.1 million. Channel 3 is the only analog broadcaster among the top five spenders.
The others are on the new digital platform and are striving to bring in more viewers.
Newspapers and outdoor and transit media were the most frequently used by digital TV stations. For example, 35 per cent of PPTV’s Bt52.2 million expenditure was for newspapers, 34 per cent for outdoor media and 24 per cent for transit media.
GMM Grammy’s One HD channel spent 77 per cent of its ad budget via outdoor media while Channel 3 poured its budget into transit (44 per cent) and outdoor media (37 per cent).