Zense plans 40% hike in revenue
ZENSE ENTERTAINMENT targets Bt400 million in revenue this year, up by more than 40 per cent from 2015, from its imported TV formats and the shows it produces itself for top-rated television stations.
It also aims to export its own shows to Southeast Asian countries within a couple of years.
Chairman and chief executive officer Varavuth Jentanakul said his company anticipated that the 12 TV shows it produces for Channel 7 HD, MCOT HD, Channel 3SD and True4U channel would receive very good feedback, with an average audience rating of 3.21 points per hour.
Giving this high rating, Zense Entertainment is able to attract a number of advertisers and sponsors to its TV shows.
“Our key strategy is that we must offer the best shows in response to real demand from audiences while helping our partner broadcasters sustain long-term business growth in terms of TV ratings and revenue,” Varavuth said.
The company creates an array of TV shows totalling 27 hours per week, ranging from game shows to variety shows, situation comedies and dramas. Half of the shows it supplies to TV stations are imported formats from global content creators, producers and distributors such as Endemol Shine Group, NBC Universal, ITV Studio and Armoza Formats, and the rest are created and developed by Zense.
The company makes four game shows – “Still Standing Thailand”, “Spelling Star”, “The Money Drop Thailand” and “Sing Your Face Off Season 2” – a variety show called “Jedsarati”, and the TV series “Code Hunter” for market leader Channel 7 HD.
For MCOT HD, the company produces four game shows – “Step Right Up”, Do Me a Favour”, “Asean Together” and “Horo Game” – and a situation comedy named “Ha Company Unlimited”.
It supplies the “Ban Praram 4” news variety show and “Honeymoon Flight” variety talk show to Channel 3SD and “The 60 Seconds Game” to True4U station.
Varavuth said his company was pitching several projects to TV stations and hoped that three of them would be selected for airing in the second half of this year.
He said that two years after its establishment in 2009, his company with 130 experienced staff had been developing its own TV formats for export to neighbouring countries.
For this year, Zense has earmarked about Bt300 million for TV production and operations. It aims to earn at least Bt400 million in revenue from its existing 12 shows, up from Bt280 million last year. Of total revenue this year, 80 per cent will come from selling advertisements and the rest from TV production.
The CEO also said that if the company is able to complete its three studios by the final quarter of the year, this could reduce its TV production costs by 10-15 per cent. The company now rents studios from other companies to produce its shows.
