Not the right time to enter TV industry: Intouch chief
MAJOR TELECOM company Intouch Holdings needs more time to get a deeper understanding of the TV broadcasting industry before it moves full steam into the new frontier, the firm's group chief executive officer Somprasong Boonyachai said.
He said the broadcasting business was very much about emotions and feelings of audiences and the company needed to learn more about this before fully jumping in.
Under a joint venture, Intouch and film and TV production company Kantana remade US teen drama TV series “Gossip Girl” into a Thai version, which was broadcast on Channel TV 3.
Somprasong said there was no plan yet to develop the next season of the series, despite positive feedback for the concluded first season.
Two years ago Intouch took part in the country’s first auction for terrestrial digital TV licences but failed to get a licence.
Somprasong said the company realised it was not the right time to enter the industry, which mainly depends on TV ratings, advertising and viewer bases. He denied the rumour circulating that some existing digital TV channel operators had approached Intouch with offers to take over their businesses. “No one has offered us a deal and it’s not the right time to invest in this area,” he said.
Early this year Thai TV, led by media veteran Pantipa Sakulchai, claimed that it had suffered a huge loss and refused to pay the second instalment of the licence fee.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission suspended its licence, but gave Thai TV an opportunity to seek a partnership to help ease its business burden. Someoperators have filed lawsuits with the Central Administra-tive Court over the regulator’s alleged failure to promote the digital TV sector.
