Grammy’s digital channels ‘will hit revenue targets’
GMM Grammy still believes that its two terrestrial-based digital TV channels will achieve their revenue targets, thanks mainly to content strategy, even though advertisers have been tightening their budgets this year.
“Our super-prime-time slots from 6.20pm to 10pm have been fully booked by advertisers. With this full occupancy, the channel has decided to raise advertising rates by 15 per cent, effective next month, from the previous rates announced early this year,” Surapol Perapongpipath, director for sales at GMM One Digital TV, the operator of One 31 channel, said yesterday.
This decision follows a big improvement in the channel’s ratings this year after adding more top-rated dramas, situation comedies and game shows.
GMM One chief executive officer Takonkiet Viravan said that among the top six free-to-air TV stations, One 31 anticipated the highest growth in audience ratings. Between January and late last month, One 31 posted 0.629 rating point, a 63.5-per-cent jump from the same period last year.
The channel is preparing new programme line-ups for the remaining months, including top-ranked US format show “The Bachelor”, which will be made into a local version by production house Kantana Group.
Surapol said One 31’s business performance in the first half was higher than projected, so he believed that full-year revenue would hit the target of Bt1.8 billion.
Meanwhile, Saithip Montrikul Na Ayudhaya, CEO of GMM Channel Digital TV, the operator of GMM 25 digital TV station, said her channel was now on the right track in terms of revenue earnings.
Challenging economy
“So far, we have made more than Bt400 million in revenue, which is already on par with last year’s. Our projection for this year is Bt800 million,” Saithip said.
She acknowledged that doing business amid an economic slowdown was quite difficult, but her team had offered more flexible and valued packages to attract and retain advertisers and sponsors. For example, they could place their products in the programmes, participate in on-ground events and get online exposure via rerun programmes on YouTube and Line TV.
Before commencing the production of a top-rated drama, GMM 25 has to propose the project to potential clients to make sure they will invest in it. For example, a new version of “O-Negative” will start production soon, having been fully booked by advertisers and sponsors.
Affiliates such as GDH, GMM TV and GMM Bravo, which act as content providers for the channel, have followed the same strategy to ensure that they receive sufficient funds to make each programme profitable.
Early this year, GMM Grammy budgeted about Bt2 billion for content production for both digital channels.
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