Some media companies survive advertising shortfall in first half 

A group of top gainers – Mono Technology, Plan B Media, Major Cineplex Group, TV Direct, TV Thunder, Wave Entertainment and Workpoint Entertainment – kept their revenues and net profits in positive territory, based on media and entertainment companies’ third-quarter financial reports to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Mono Technology enjoyed 32.48-per-cent revenue growth to Bt615.46 million with net profit of Bt10.12 million in the third quarter. The company credited its digital terrestrial TV business. Ranked in fourth place in the TV broadcasting business, Mono 29 channel earned an audience rating of 0.7 point during the third quarter, up from 0.3 in the same period last year. 
As well, Workpoint Entertainment, which entered the digital-TV business with strong content production and top-rated TV programmes, showed impressive financial results with a surge of 21 per cent in revenue to Bt776 million while net profit jumped to Bt108 million, growth of 134 per cent. Apart from Workpoint TV digital channel, which created Bt640 million in the third quarter, other revenue sources were events, concerts and plays, as well as revenue sharing with YouTube. 
Television-production house TV Thunder made a good start as the new kid on the Thai bourse with 4.18-per-cent year-on-year growth to Bt163 million while its anticipated net profit was a 52.36-per-cent increase to Bt13.79 million. The company supplies and produces TV programmes. 
Another TV-production company, Wave Entertainment, revealed that it enjoyed 10-per-cent revenue growth to Bt726 million. 

Online-shopping 
Boosted by the increasing popularity of online shopping, TV Direct home-shopping TV station said its third-quarter revenue rose by 25 per cent to Bt913.3 million, thanks to the expansion of sales from the Internet in line with improvements to its product-distribution service.
Out-of-home media business appears to see growth mainly thanks to acquisitions and new product developments. Plan B Media posted a 14.3-per-cent rise to Bt657 million in revenue in the July-to-September period, while VGI Global Media showed a 33-per-cent increase to Bt531 million. 
However, another key player, Master Ad, revealed that its sales had declined. Its revenue grew by only 0.1 per cent to Bt172 million. 
Some groups sought different strategies to combat losses.
Amarin Printing and Publishing and Matichon Publishing adjusted their businesses to offset difficulties.
After placing more emphasis on holistic media and content solutions, Amarin Printing and Publishing saw a 2.46-per-cent revenue increase to Bt492 million, mainly driven by printing, fair and television business. Matichon Publishing tried to find an opportunity in the digital-media business to alleviate its net loss in the third quarter. 
GMM Grammy revealed a strong recovery in its third-quarter operating results, showing a strong recovery in a reported net loss of Bt11 million, lower by 92 per cent year on year. It said the net loss was mainly caused by investment in digital TV and satellite-TV set-top boxes. 
Boosaba Daorueng, group chief executive officer of the company, said that operating revenues also increased by 0.7 per cent from the same period last year, partly driven by its two digital TV stations. 
However, some media companies underperformed as a result of the economic downturn, which affected advertising revenue. 
BEC World’s net profit slid by 45.8 per cent to Bt251.1 million mainly because of fewer minutes sold for daytime shows at its main station Channel 3. MCOT’s revenue also fell by 36 per cent to Bt660 million. Post Publishing declared a net loss of Bt7 million while its consolidated sales and service income decreased by 15.1 per cent to Bt440 million.