Over the years, the giant entertainment company has been seen by critics as churning out polluted programmes aimed solely at commercial success.

For instance, the company was known to scrimp on its promotion budget by inviting well-known movie stars to sing, even though most could hardly handle a note. RS produced soap operas with plot lines of pure cliche. They also launched such teeny-bopper icons as Rattabhom "Film" Taokongsap and the four-girl Girly Berry group.

RS, however, has decided to do a good deed for society, instead of merely luring teenagers into spending their money to buy products endorsed by these young stars.

Yesterday, RS announced a plan to fix its image by providing tutoring services to its young clients. The idea is to round up these fans from the karaoke bars and get them back into school.

RS hired four popular university entrance-examination tutors: Ajarn Ping to tutor in Thai and social studies; Ajarn Jia, maths; Acharn Chatichai, English; and Acharn Kasem, biology. These are four very important subjects on the university-entrance exam.

But the students won't have to brave the traffic to be present in the tutoring rooms.

RS fans will be able receive exam tips from these renowned tutors via SMS, including guidelines on questions the students are likely to face during the exam.

RS executives say the service is the first of its kind. The idea arose in response to the millions of young clients who subscribe to music through their mobile phones.

If only a small portion of these SMS users turn out to be nerdy students wanting the special tutoring service, then the number of subscribers could run into the hundreds of thousands.

If the project succeeds, RS plans to expand the service to new media like Wireless Application Protocol.

But the service comes at a cost. Youngsters must pay Bt39 a month to subscribe to each subject.

The only way rival entertainment label GMM Grammy could outsmart this latest RS service is to provide SMS tutoring for free.

kwanchai@nationgroup.com