PPTV secures deal to broadcast free live Premier League matches

“Our company has reached an agreement with CTH, the pay-TV operator that holds the audio-visual broadcasting rights of this football league, and the partnership will soon be announced,” Kematat Paladesh, president of Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, said yesterday. 

Under this co-broadcasting deal, 26 of the 380 live matches of the Premier League’s new season will be broadcast on the PPTV channel. Kematat said his sponsorship packages, including premium and gold tiers, were already reserved by major brands. Each premium package costs about Bt20 million while gold packages are about Bt5 million to Bt6 million each.

Though Kematat declined to talk about how much it cost PPTV to get this deal, he hinted that it was around the same as a previous deal that CTH sealed with Bangkok Entertainment Company, the operator of Channel 3. 

Last year, BEC paid about Bt200 million for the right to telecast only 26 live Premier League matches, while the remaining two free live matches were aired on Thairath TV, another digital channel. The owner of Thairath TV holds a 25-per-cent stake in CTH. 

“Sport content is among the key strategies of PPTV for the remaining months [of 2014] and next year in a bid to expand its audience base,” Kematat said. Apart from this Premier League deal, the channel has also acquired all broadcasting rights of Germany’s Bundesliga football league for the next two consecutive seasons; the 2015 Uefa Under-21 Championship; and the International Champion Cup. 

 

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To enhance the viewing experience for football fans, the company has also invested in computer graphics immersive technology by Orad, a software developer. 

The expenditure in this sport content is part of its overall annual investment on programming, totalling about Bt1 billion.

To expand its viewer base, PPTV is spending more on drama production, as this kind of content is the most attractive for both urban and rural audiences. It has prepared a line-up of 10 Thai dramas for broadcast in prime-time slots as well as top-rated Korean and Chinese dramas for the second half of this year and 2016.

In the second half, PPTV will dedicate 66 per cent of its airtime for entertainment programmes, followed by news with 24 per cent, sport with 7 per cent and the rest from others. Currently, PPTV is ranked thirteenth among the 27 free TV channels, according to Nielsen (Thailand). 

For cost-management purposes, PPTV will close its office in Bangkok’s Asoke area and move operations into its Vibhavadi office. The company has no plan to raise its advertising rates.