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Published on April 15, 2008

Sutharat Tangasanawit, 21, and Sittisak Chaichana, 19, became friends by chance after discovering they both shared a common passion: they were devotees of "Academy Fantasia (AF) Season 4", a reality show by pay-TV operator True Visions.

Sittisak, a law student at Ramkhamhaeng University, was initially a subscriber to True Life, a mobile-phone package of True Visions, paying Bt300 a month to use the service.

After watching "AF4", which ran 12 weeks last year, he became addicted to the show. He began downloading its content and sending a wave of SMSs to vote for performers. Later he signed up for True Visions' Silver package before taking up its Gold package.

"My family has no problem on my spending on 'AF4' as long as I maintain good grades. I don't know how much I've spent on 'AF4'. All I know is it's quite a lot," Sittisak said.

Another fan, Sutharat, with a loud laugh said she had spent more than Bt100,000 on "AF4" content and related activities.

Sutharat, a humanities

student at Ramkhamhaeng University, said she did not act alone. Her mother and aunt are also hardcore "AF" devotees.

Sutharat subscribed to

various True services, including True Visions, True Move, True Internet and True fixed-line telephone, as well as

True's e-commerce website weloveshopping.com, where she ordered tickets for "AF" activities.

Her money went to send-

ing SMSs to vote for contenders like Suparada "Papang" Tempreecha and Vivit "Tee" Bawornkiratikajorn. Other billings included those from her purchase of related "premium" merchandise.

She also joined a trip that took "AF4" performers and fans on an outing abroad.

Even though "AF4" returned money collected from SMSs

to its voters, Sutharat spent

her rebate on downloading Papang's music content.

When asked if she regretted blowing so much cash, she said: "It was worth it, because it made me and my mum happy. It's just like when you love someone, you want to see them succeed. We're ready to help them reach their goals. We feel happy when they make it," she said.

She said her actions had nothing to do with brand royalty to True. She used its services because the channel made her happy.

Whether these devotees stick with True's network remains to be seen. But the two fans are representative of the thousands who are willing to splurge on "AF" content, spurring True's cash flow.

True offers bundled services consisting of pay-TV, mobile phone and broadband Internet to customers as part of its convergence policy.

Besides "AF", True has an online game, online music and wireless downloads of exclusive songs. It recently formed an animation movie firm called Beboyd CG to tap the cartoon market.

But True does not want to stop at teens. It wants to attract adults, as well, because they have far higher spending power.

True also wants to tap foreign markets. Last year, it joined hands with a Chinese television channel, sending some "AF" artists to take part in its mainland partner's reality show.

This year, True will spend Bt100 million to develop "AF Season 5", which airs next month.

"AF4" recorded more than 20 million votes last year and earned Bt60 million in revenue.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation