AIS incentives for cable-TV viewers

As part of the partnership, AIS will give away post-paid SIM cards - called Cable TV SIM cards - to 3 million household cable-TV subscribers.

The SIM card features a promotional call package and free mobile-phone news content from the Nation Group for specified periods. It also offers a promotional call package to 350 operators in the Thailand Cable TV Association.

AIS executive vice president Somchai Lertsutiwong said the move was part of AIS's penetration into the cable-TV segment and reflected attempts to boost subscriber numbers to 32.5 million next year, from more than 28 million now.

Association president Kasem Inkaew yesterday said he expected half of the 3 million household cable-TV subscribers to sign up for the SIM cards.

Adisak Limprungpatanakit, chief operating officer of cable-TV content producer Nation Broadcasting, said he hoped users of the Cable TV SIM cards would subscribe to the Nation Group's mobile news service once the promotional periods ended.

"We expect 10 per cent of the 3 million household cable subscribers to subscribe to our mobile news service," he said.

At present, the Nation Group has 300,000 mobile news subscribers. Its Nation Channel has about 3 million cable-TV viewers nationwide, of which 1.2 million are in Bangkok.