Subscriber the king as rivals fight it out
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Watching live football matches on television has become a totally new experience or an ordeal, whichever way you look at it, for fans in Thailand.
Most of the living rooms these days are full with a pile of set-top boxes, and some viewers are so confused that they end up using the wrong remote control for the wrong box.
All the confusion is the result of change in broadcast rights holders in Thailand. The popular European football leagues now have three different rights holders who have been peddling their own set-top boxes.
First, TrueVisions broadcasts English Premier League (EPL), whose rights will expire next year, and also the Italian Serie A.
Second, RS secured the right to broadcast the Spanish La Liga (2012-2014 seasons) as well as World Cup 2014, which will be televised via its SunBox.
Third, GMM Z box of GMM Grammy broadcasts German Bundesliga, French League 1, Capital One Cup, and English npower Championship.
Grammy and RS’s entry into the business forced TrueVisions, a dominant player, holding the licences of major football leagues for all these years, to change their business and marketing strategy.
The first development is the lowering of subscription fees. The less the content the lower is the subscription fee.
In the past you had to pay around Bt1,400 for the Gold package to watch all the English Premier League matches but now TrueVisions is offering at a lower price. The Super Sports Pack costs Bt650 per month and fans can enjoy up to 190 live matches besides 190 rerun matches. It appears a good deal for football fans who want to pay only for the EPL content. But Gold package gives value for the money because one can watch all 380 live matches, including the Uefa Champions League and other entertainment channels.
TrueVisions also launched an Internet TV service of the EPL through personal computers, tablets and smart phones for Bt350 a month. The country’s biggest subscription TV operator also took their exclusive or premium sport content to the mass market by tying up with PSI Holding.
PSI Holding, the largest manufacturer and trader of satellite TV receivers, is offering a one-time paid PSI True TV boxes accessing free-to-air service, providing customers with about 200 channels, including some exclusive ones such as EPL and UCL matches. TrueVisions, in order to please football fans, has shared some of its live football matches this season – EPL, UCL, and Europa League – which all are licensed to it, to free TV channels 3, 9 and 5. RS did the same by sharing some of Spanish matches on Channel 7.
The shared content of TrueVisions and RS to free TVs means there will not be “blank screen” as it happened during Euro 2012 with Grammy playing the culprit and upsetting TrueVisions’ subscribers and PSI’s satellite users. Grammy appears to be isolated after that move. GMM Z box has received lukewarm reception from the consumers because the football rights they secured were quite unpopular with Thai viewers.
But Grammy recently prepared a plan B in case they fail to get EPL rights for 2013–2015 seasons, which the three rivals are desperately trying to win. Grammy is trying to acquire rights of football channels belonging to leading clubs Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund. But they can air only reruns of matches 24 hours later and also the clubs’ programmes. The aggressive strategies of the three rivals are aimed at becoming the “king of football content”. But it’s not that easy to realise the dream as the game has changed from a monopoly to a more competitive market.
