TrueVisions banks on HD, more sport
With its English Premier League (EPL) rights set to expire at the end of this season, TrueVisions is aiming to secure more broadcasting rights for leading sports and add extra high-definition channels for sports fans.
The firm wants to become the undisputed “ leader of high-definition broadcasts”, with more HD channels than any other operator.
TrueVisions currently has 17 HD channels, including three for sport, which cover the EPL, volleyball, Thai Premier League football, tennis, snooker, NBA basketball and Formula One.
TrueVisions recently changed its slogan from “King of soccer” to “King of sport” after failing to secure the rights of EPL, Thailand’s most watched football league, last November.
“Sport is not only football – there are plenty of other kinds of sport [to watch],” said TrueVisions chief commercial officer Ong-ard Prapakamol.
Cable Thai Holding won the EPL broadcast rights for 2013 to 2015. TrueVisions responded by trying to secure rights to more sport content. This year they secured rights for the Thai Volleyball League, French Open tennis (with two matches broadcast live simultaneously on two HD channels), and added 34 more Thai league matches.
Ong-ard said TrueVisions still holds the rights for the Uefa Champions League from 2012 to 2014. Europe’s top club tournament will be broadcast in HD soon, he said.
Negotiations are underway with Cable Thai Holding about the possibility of broadcasting some EPL matches on TrueVisions, with subsribers eager to know the outcome. Ong-ard said the firm would call a press conference to address the issue next month.
“Let’s see how we can compensate our customers and retain their loyalty in case we fail to get some EPL match broadcasts [from CTH] ,” Ong-ard said.
“We are prepared for life without the EPL broadcasts but we welcome any discussion from the rights holders,” Ong-ard said.
Thailand had more operators competing for sports broadcasting rights than any other country, and rights owners were taking advantage and raising their bid fees, Ong-ard said. Overpriced content was not worth competing for, he added.
Chulathai Saligupta, TrueVisions’ director of sport programming, said that after last year’s huge bid by CTH for the EPL rights, the price of other sports content may rise. CTH paid the Premier League almost Bt10 billion for the broadcast rights – six times higher than TrueVision paid in the last three seasons.
He cited the case of the Thai Premier League, whose 2011-2013 broadcast rights cost TrueVisions Bt200 million. In contrast, he said, the Football Association of Thailand is hoping to reap Bt600 million, or three times more, for the next three seasons.
