Encrypted content may safe the day for cable-TV operators

The association's vice president, Wichit Aurareevorakul, said that in the long-term, free-to-air satellite TV will become major a competitor of cable TV operators.

"What we are doing now is allocating fixed channels, with priority given to encrypted content," Wichit said.

Without encrypting, free-to-air satellite TV viewers can also view some cable TV content.

He said that from the total of 50 different channels currently available in cable TV networks, 15 to 20 are encrypted, including Live Media, Movie Hits, Sun Movie and Star Movies.

Wichit said there were currently three million cable TV subscribers across the country using the fibre-optic system. "We expect the number of viewers to rise to four million by the end of next year," he said, explaining that free-to-air satellite TV was currently being utilised in suburban areas where the fibre-optic system was out of reach.

He said that with the fibre-optic system, the number of cable TV head-ends could be reduced significantly from the current 400 to about 300 next year.

Kasem Inkaew, president of the association, said that reshuffling program content would make cable television different from the free-to-air satellite TV and help small operators survive the competition.

"Small cable-TV operators, who have to charge subscribers at least Bt350 per month, cannot compete with free-to-air TV, which only charges a one-off payment of Bt3,000-Bt5,000 for the satellite dish," Kasem said.

Kulpong Bunnag, managing director of Live TV, said his company's five major channels, namely POP, Thai Chaiyo, Movie Plus, EDN and 1Variety, were being broadcast at local cable TV networks in an encrypted format, though the content will be reshuffled by the association later.

He said the weakness of the free-to-air format is that it is quite difficult to work out the exact number of viewers, though content providers can raise viewer statistics if they can convince agencies to place ads in the channels.

"We at Live TV expect to grow three-fold to between Bt200 million and Bt250 million in revenues generated from advertising and member fees," Kulpong said.

He added that Live TV was interested in adding two new channels, either news, sports, documentaries or action movies, to its portfolio this year. The channels will be broadcast through local cable-TV networks as well as KU-band satellite TV networks, which are allowed to commercially sell pay-per-view packages.

Kulpong said that there was great potential for cable TV in Thailand due to the low-penetration rate here compared to other countries.

"In countries like Taiwan and South Korea, the cable TV penetration is as high as 90 per cent and about 60 per cent in the Philippines. In Thailand, with about 19 million households owning television, only 15 per cent watch cable TV," he said.