TrueVisions eyes BPL
MAJOR pay-TV operators are keen on participating in the next round of bidding for the broadcasting rights of the highly popular Barclays Premier League (BPL) football seasons.
“I’ll try to bring the broadcasting rights back to TrueVisions,” said Suphachai Chearavanont, chief executive officer of True Corp, last week.
The competition in this new round, expected to take place in May or June, would not be fierce, unlike the previous round in 2012, he said.
TrueVisions lost more than 70,000 subscribers soon after losing the BPL rights, but its situation improved after introducing a series of other programmes, including Thai Premier League matches.
TrueVisions had been the sole broadcaster of the Barclays Premier League in Thailand until newcomer CTH surprisingly emerged as winner for the 2013-16 seasons.
The next round is one year in advance of the end of the current broadcasting rights.
CTH reportedly quoted more than Bt12 billion to clinch the current seasons and spent Bt20 billion on network installation to run all the football matches.
CTH chairman Wichai Thongtang said the company is keen on participating again in the next round, pending its completion of bidding models.
Foreign companies are reportedly interested in grabbing the rights for Thailand in this new round, he said.
CTH has about 2 million subscribers. It suffered a loss of about Bt4 billion in 2013.
True’s Suphachai also said the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) should make more bandwidth available for the telecom spectrum auction scheduled this year.
At least 20MHz bandwidth is needed to implement smoothly the 4G wireless broadband service, he said.
The NBTC will put four licences on the block – two 12.5MHz bands on the 1,800MHz spectrum and two 10MHz bands on the 900MHz spectrum.
The 1,800MHz auction will be held in November and the two 900MHz licences in December.
Suphachai said True’s foreign strategic partner China Mobile has given full support for True to join the bidding.
