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Nation Broadcasting Corp (NBC), one of the country's top providers of multimedia content, has finally come of age after 19 years in the business.

Its shares will be traded on Thailand's Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) for the first time next Wednesday.

President and CEO Adisak Limprungpatanakij, 48, says the MAI listing is clearly a milestone for NBC, subsidiary of the Nation Multimedia Group (NMG), publisher of this newspaper.

"It's been a long journey for us and we've been through both ups and downs over the past few years.

"In my opinion, we came into the broadcasting business rather by accident. Back in 1990, we were holding a seminar in Phuket on the issue of the Southern Seaboard development.

"To be exact, it was on August 2. Iraq had invaded Kuwait that morning, and the speakers, including Kuwait's chief executive in Thailand, couldn't make it to the seminar, which was supposed to be broadcast live on Channel 3.

"So we made a last-minute change and turned our focus on the breaking news - the Kuwait invasion. Suthichai Yoon [Nation Group's editor-in-chief] took the opportunity to present the news live on TV using news feeds from the telex machine. The Internet was still a few years away.

"That was the beginning of NMG's diversification into the world of multimedia. Later, came News Talk and other programmes on both free and cable television stations.

"We also introduced the first 24-hour radio news station in Thailand in the early 1990s and managed news programmes on iTV until 2000.

"Afterwards, we set up the Nation Channel, Thailand's first 24-hour news channel, which went on air through the UBC cable TV network. At the peak, we had nearly 300 editorial staff for TV alone.

"However, there was a major cutback in 2005 due to an unfavourable business environment. Today, we're back with around 280 staff for TV, radio and new media," Adisak says.

The TV business currently accounts for 70 per cent of NBC's total income, followed by new media (20 per cent) and radio (10 per cent).

At present, NBC produces seven TV programmes for free, cable and satellite television channel. In the first six months of this year, the firm reported a net profit of Bt17 million on revenue of Bt213 million.

The listing of NBC shares on MAI will raise Bt145 million in fresh funds for new investment in equipment and further development of broadcast and other new media.

"NMG will retain its 61-per-cent shareholding in NBC following the listing. Our challenge is to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-evolving world of multimedia content in which TV, radio and other new media such as Internet are converging on the digital platform.

"Besides free TV, our content is on satellite, cable and Internet TV and radio, |on websites as well as on mobile phones |etc. They will soon move on to the 3G |technology, WiMax and the digital TV platform.

"In the end, our competitiveness lies in the quality of our content, our integrity and our efforts in branching into lifestyle and entertainment programmes.

"Besides the hard news-oriented Nation Channel, we're now in the process of setting up a second TV station for softer news and related content," Adisak explains.