CTH earmarks Bt500mn to import 'quality' TV content

Cable Television Holding will spend Bt500 million next year to import cable-TV content in a bid to boost its subscriber base and revenue.

"To improve the quality of content is a key strategy for cable-television operators to make them different from free-to-air satellite TV operators that rely mainly on advertising revenue," executive director Wichit Aurareevorakul told The Nation yesterday.

CTH was founded in 2009 by 100 local cable companies to buy imported content on a cost-sharing basis as well as provide selected packages to its members.

The company will upgrade programming this and next year by acquiring imported productions from the world's leading houses and broadcasting rights to sports tournaments, he said.

CTH currently offers a wide range of imported content such as documentaries, movies and sports via 16 channels including Goal TV1, Goal TV2, D-Movie, D-Asian, Movie Hits, FoxCrime, Nat Geo Wild, MySci, Real Metro, Outdoor Channel and ITV Granada.

The company expects to add four or five more channels for Bt100 million this year and increase programmes to 30 channels next year.

Imported shows will be bought both directly from international producers such as Fox International Channels, Sony Picture Television or HBO Asia and indirectly from local TV production houses that localise imported programmes.

Cable subscribers who have to pay a Bt200-Bt300 monthly fee are happy to pay extra for better-quality programmes, Wichit said.

The company is not trying to beat TrueVisions, a subscription-based cable-TV operator with 450,000-500,000 loyalty premium subscribers, as CTH focused on quantity, he said.

However, CTH is working closely with the Thailand Cable TV Association to persuade subscribers to change their analogue set-top boxes to digital models within two years. This will let cable-TV operators multiply their channels from 90 to more than 300.

"With these factors, we strongly believe that we can provide more customised service for quality content to both existing and new customers in Bangkok and other parts of the country as well as improve revenue," Wichit said.