Channels concerned as foreign content cost rises, slow ad growth
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MAJOR TV production houses and broadcasters have raised concerns that the weakening baht might affect their expenditure on imported content while advertising spending next year will grow by only a small percentage.
Kematat Paladesh, president of Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, the operator of PPTV digital channel, said that apart from weak consumer confidence in 2016, his company is concerned about cost management as PPTV had already invested in a number of broadcasting rights for entertainment and sport content.
“The depreciation of baht against the US dollar could create more burden for the company on content copyright expenditure in the coming year. Therefore, we have to wait and see its development in order to design appropriate preparation,” Kematat explained.
PPTV channel provides a number of top-rated dramas and TV series from leading South Korean broadcasters such as KBS, MBC and SBS. Sport content is also a key strategy, with the acquisition of all broadcasting rights of the German Bundesliga football league for the next two years; the Uefa Under-21 Championship and the International Champion Cup.
Apart from concerns over the weakening baht, Sasikorn Chansate, chief executive officer for TV business at Kantana Group, said that under the copyright contract, some fees would also be subject to inflation. That means each licence holder must pay more to hold the rights to TV formats every year.
Kantana Group is the country's leading TV production house as it produces and supplies international TV formats to major TV stations such as Channel 3, Channel 7, MCOT HD and Thairath TV. Kantana’s main shows from overseas “The Face Thailand”, “Gossip Girl Thailand”, “Dancing with the Stars” and “American Idol.”
The cost of acquiring the broadcasting rights of international programmes appears to have consistently increased mainly driven by the rise of demand from local broadcasters who desire TV contents to attract viewers.
In a previous interview, Birathon Kasemsri na Ayudhaya, head of commercial and business development at True Corporation and True Visions, admitted that the investment to acquire new content copyright had increased by 20 per cent, from normal subscription-based contracts, because the company had to acquire all the rights to cover all media windows, such as free-to-air, pay-TV and Internet Protocol TV (iPTV).
True Corp operates True Visions for pay-TV service and True4U and TNN24 news channel for free-to-air service. Amid the increase to the content cost, advertisers are expected to be more cautious with their spending next year. Leading media agency Mindshare Thailand to predict that advertising industry to will grow by only 3-6 per cent next year.
