Two years ago, Thailand's sole operator of nationwide cable service discovered the trend in which the global game market had exceeded the movie industry.

Currently UBC airs more than five movie channels, one being the most watched among its 50-plus channels. UBC executives now expect the new game channel to climb up among its top 10 most-watched channels within a short period.

"If you take the number of online game players, which total four million, and if only 10 per cent of them watch the game channel, that will be nearly equal to the current subscription base of UBC," said Ong-ard Prapakamol, chief commercial officer of United Broadcasting Corp Plc (UBC).

Kreekorn Paireepinart, general manager of True Digital Entertainment's content and application business, said the worldwide gaming market outgrew the movie industry two years ago. Today the gaming market is worth US$7 billion (Bt262 billion) versus the movie market's $5 billion.

Because of rampant piracy, the local gaming market has not yet exceeded the movie market, at least in official figures. (Because figures for pirated game market are unknown, only legal games can be counted.)

Noppadol Dej-Udom, managing director of True Digital Entertainment, said there were 10 million game-players in Thailand, of which four million were online game players. The local online gaming market is worth about Bt2 billion and is growing by 35 per cent a year. Growth has slowed from previous years when it had run at more than 100 per cent, due to the problem of illegal game servers.

Noppadol said that True Digital had invested about Bt10 million in the new G2 Channel and the company expected to recoup its investment within a year. The programmes will be made by the channel's own team, purchased from abroad, and obtained from about 20 gaming-industry partners.

The G2 Channel will be broadcast on UBC Channel 22. The game channel can also be viewed on True iPTV and www.gsquare.tv. Thirty per cent of the channel's content will be for games, 30 per cent for game contests, and the remainder for news, animation techniques and English-language usage in games.

The channel's partners include game magazines such as Future Gamer and CompGamer; game importers and distributors Electronic Arts, New Era & BM Media, Play Station and X Box; animation companies Pixar and Imagimax; and television game producers Game4U from the US, On Game Net, MBC from South Korea, and Game One from France.

Ong-ard revealed that UBC would also launch three or four more channels by the end of this year in the documentary and entertainment categories.

Asked why UBC keeps offering more channels despite the recent coup and an expected economic slow down, he said that the new channels had already been prepared for launch and cable television will still be a cheap alternative entertainment medium for consumers in any circumstances.

The G2 channel is available to all UBC subscribers.

Pichaya Changsorn

The Nation