Mono 29 budgets Bt800m for 2015
Mono Group, a media and entertainment company, is earmarking about Bt800 million next year mainly for local and foreign programmes to keep its digital terrestrial TV channel in the top five.
Chief executive officer Sang Do Lee said yesterday that after six months of operation, Mono 29, a standard-definition variety channel, anticipated a good response in terms of audience ratings and advertising revenue. It is now No 3 in the digital terrestrial TV market. Western and Asian TV series account for 75 per cent of its airtime, and news programmes the rest.
Next year, Bt500 million will go for acquiring new content, particularly TV series, from overseas distributors including Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney and United International Pictures. The company plans to produce 12 local TV series, situation comedies and music videos.
The remaining budget of Bt300 million will be spent constructing four studios equipped with the latest lighting and sound technology.
The new facilities will be located on a 12-rai (1.9-hectare) site near its head office in the Chaiyapruek area. All of the new studios are expected to be ready for TV and music production in the middle of next year.
The digital-TV business will be a key revenue contributor to the group as well as its mobile-related services, including short messages, voting and application development.
The group targets Bt3 billion in 2015, double this year’s Bt1.5 billion. The mobile business remains the biggest, while digital TV contributes 10 per cent.
The digital-TV business will increase in importance next year to 32 per cent or about Bt1 billion of revenue, while the mobile business will represent 43 per cent or Bt1.3 billion, Lee said. The rest will come from movie streaming, Web portals, publishing, movies, radio and music.
