Fox sees good opportunities for growth in Thai pay TV

FOX Networks Group Asia says the rising popularity of video-on-demand in the Kingdom has presented good opportunities for the local pay-TV industry.
Zubin Gandevia, president for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at Fox Networks Group, said Thailand was one of the company’s highest-potential Asian markets, as there were only 6.8 million pay-TV subscribers in a country where more than 22 million households have a television.
The Thai pay-TV subscription base is ranked No 7 in Asia, after China with 317.28 million, India with 151.57 million, South Korea with 32.65 million, Pakistan with 12.62 million, Japan with 10.89 million, and Vietnam with 8.96 million. “Therefore, we want to distribute our quality entertainment and sports content to all media windows as much as we can,” Gandevia said.
According to the company, the number of pay-TV subscribers here has grown by 31 per cent since 2011.
He acknowledged that content distribution to local pay-TV |operators remained the biggest revenue contributor for the |group. However, his company is seeking additional revenue from syndication of its acquired broadcasting rights to local free-to-air TV operators on both satellite-based and terrestrial-based platforms. 
MR Rujayarak Abhakorn, vice president of Fox Networks Group (Thailand), said his company was talking with several TV broadcasters on distributing quality entertainment and sports programmes to Thai audiences. The company also operates localised free-to-air channels Fox Thai and Star World to attract more advertising and sponsorships from both regional and Thai sources. 
Fox says the surge of video-on-demand services in the Kingdom has also created huge opportunities, as the company is able to penetrate new territories such as Internet protocol TV, mobile TV and broadband TV.