Foreign-content provider JKN cashing in on demand from digital channels

Chief executive officer Andrew Suteestarpon said yesterday that his company was working with leading broadcasters by providing foreign content and through co-production. The key active clients are the Army’s TV5, Channel 3, Channel 7, Channel 8, MCOT’s Modernine TV, Bright TV, and a leading pay-TV operator.
Andrew said TV5 was the biggest client, using five programmes provided by JKN, including co-produced shows, for a total of nine hours per week.
They are the South Korean period drama “God of War”, “The Andrew Show”, “The Exclusive”, “Tong Lok with TV5” and the talent show “Dance Thailand Dance”.
These five shows are broadcast in TV5’s evening prime time with advertising rates between Bt150,000 and Bt200,000 per minute. Under its co-production scheme, JKN shares revenue with TV5 and gains extra revenue from related marketing activities.
“It was a perfect time for a content provider like us. At the early stage of digital TV, each broadcaster needed to manage its costs for better [financial] performance. Therefore, complete programmes from overseas seemed to be an answer for them,” Andrew said.
The average cost of acquiring the rights to a foreign programme and repackaging it for local broadcast is Bt100,000 per episode. That compares with an average production cost for a new local TV show of more than Bt500,000 per episode.
To acquire the broadcasting rights to foreign programmes, JKN budgets about Bt300 million every year. With new clients this year, the company aims to make at least Bt1 billion in revenue with Bt110 million in profit, up from Bt600 million revenue and Bt81 million in profit last year. 
Of total revenue, 75 per cent will come from selling and providing TV shows for digital free TV and pay-TV channels, while the remaining Bt25 million will come from home entertainment and magazines.