Television production house JSL Co Ltd aims to cut operating costs by 20 per cent this year to cope with the decline in media spending by TV advertisers.

CEO Jamnan Siritan Nunbhakdi said last week the move was a crucial adjustment for the leading local TV programme producer given the significant overall decline in media spending, particularly on television and radio and in newspapers and magazines.

Total media spending in the first quarter this year recorded growth of only 4.4 per cent. Spending on TV commercials saw growth of just 3.2 per cent in the period, while radio spots and newspaper and magazine ads recorded big falls of 7.2 per cent, 10.2 per cent and 8.7 per cent, respectively.

However, TV advertising in the month of April saw a big decline of 7 per cent, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"Not only JSL but all TV programme producers need to adjust by monitoring all expenses and trying to trim fat from their organisation," said Jamnan.

She cited changes in the production of pilot episodes for new TV series as one example of JSL's cost-cutting strategy. New shows will now be developed extensively on paper before actually going to the studio to create the pilot episodes to present to TV stations.

The strategy will avoid waste in the creation process, such as unnecessary use of studio facilities.

JSL will also adopt the use of key performance indicators to measure the productivity of its staff, who tend to have high quality and multiple skills. This is to ensure that each staff member's contribution to the company is in line with what they are being paid. The company will promote excellent staff and develop those who are still not qualified.

JSL has about 400 employees.

The company recently withdrew two major TV programmes - "Share" and "The Visitor" - from the Modernine channel, as both had failed to generate good viewer ratings. It currently produces eight programmes for free-TV channels 5, 7 and 9.

"We don't want to handle too many programmes for TV stations, as this will lead to lower quality of each programme. TV stations themselves don't want only a few producers to monopolise their air time, but prefer to give time slots to many producers," said Jamnan.

She added that JSL would be more prudent in launching new programmes. "We will look at each of our programmes and its performance carefully. We always tell our creative people and producers to be highly concerned about the quality of their programmes. The company will seriously consider withdrawing any programme that cannot gain awareness and viewer interest within six months of its launch. These non-performing programmes benefit neither the company nor the TV station," Jamnan said.

"Using these measures, we would like to cut our operating costs by about 20 per cent this year," she said.

Jamnan said these were hard times for the TV industry, as both the government and the private sector had cut back on advertising budgets.

"We have seen a significant decline in all media formats such as television, newspaper and radio, as well as in special events and activities," said Jamnan.

She said JSL itself had fallen 10 per cent short of its first-quarter revenue target. However, the company and its subsidiaries expect to achieve their combined revenue target of Bt1.32 billion this year, against Bt982 million last year.

Meanwhile, JSL has rolled out a campaign called "Be Porpiang Generation" to promote His Majesty the King's sufficiency-economy philosophy among the general public. The campaign, created in collaboration with the Subcommittee for Sufficiency Economy Mobilisation, includes TV programmes and short documentaries to promote sufficiency economy. It will run until January 2008.

"We would also like to support His Majesty the King's sufficiency-economy philosophy by starting with ourselves," said Jamnan.

There will also be "Be Porpiang Generation" road shows in major provinces such as Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Bangkok to promote the philosophy.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation