All eyes on the ball in new TV bidding

Thailand’s love affair with English football – Barclays Premier League – has spawned immense commercial interests and complications. A key factor dictating the course of the telecom and media industry here is the exorbitant cost to capture those broadcasting rights. Befuddled are consumers, who are envied by those in many parts of the world but who are very much at the mercy of how the business wind blows.
The current broadcasting rights holder, CTH Plc, will have to jump into another fierce bidding war soon. Its broadcast privilege ends at the end of the current 2015-16 season. The previous holder, True Visions, may or may not attempt to reclaim its prestigious but unprofitable status as the Premier League broadcaster in Thailand. Whatever happens will have profound effects on cable TV consumers in this country.
In 2012, out of the blue, CTH swooped and snatched the broadcasting rights away from True Visions. The latter lost face, but as far as business goes, had little else to complain about.
It was a win-win situation for both companies actually, because the broadcasting rights were so expensive and the prices were increasing every year. True Visions lost face but would have saved considerable money. CTH would have gained from football maniacs, who are abundant in Thailand.
That left us with no choice but to pay more, especially those addicted to watching Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City play but unable to let go of programmes that True Visions had to offer.
Some might have dumped their True Visions subscriptions for CTH, but the number of people willing to double as True Visions and CTH subscribers is bigger than those who gave up the former to embrace the latter.
Thais have been envied by fans in many other countries because, here, Western football matches play out live in their living rooms. That luxury comes at a price, though, and that price threatens to rise even further.
It should be noted that True Visions has proudly announced the rights to show big games from other major leagues, so all football addicts out there are finding it hard to throw away one subscription for another.
CTH’s programmes, other than the Premier League matches, are anything but attractive. Simply put, without popular football series, its subscriber base would shrink considerably. It’s not an exaggeration to say that English football is the core business foundation of CTH, without which the company’s financial health would be in serious doubt.
But CTH’s operations have come under scrutiny. The payment system has been criticised, and even the company has admitted that, in the rush to complete the subscription infrastructure in 2012, subcontractors were used and their roles led to a big financial headache. If the motive for grabbing the English Premier League broadcasting rights was profit, CTH’s work toward that goal has been poor.
Which leads us to the multibillion-baht question: Who will win the new broadcasting rights? Will CTH fight to hold onto what it has? CTH will need a lot of operating improvement to extend its surprising, renowned but hardly profitable status.
Will True Visions seriously attempt to retake the rights, regain its face and slip back into the same old financial misery? After all, in business, there’s a point where “face” gives way to more important considerations like balance sheets.
The ultimate question, though, is whether we hapless consumers who have perhaps been wrongly envied by the rest of the world will be dealt a fair deal. This question is simple enough, although the other ones are anything but.