Media businesses will be the general election's big winners
The general election, which will be held in 37 days, will be a boon to the media, according to the head of MCOT Plc, the state-owned operator of ModerNine Television.
Mingkwan Sangsuwan, president, said that political parties would advertise their election campaigns via mass-media outlets, particularly television, radio and newspapers. He made his remarks before the opposition announced yesterday that it would boycott the election. "We expect our revenue from television advertising to grow by between 15 and 20 per cent this year, and by more than 20 per cent for radio spots, thanks to the general election," Mingkwan said. "Any violent and continued political conflicts will destroy the country's economy, so those conflicts should be solved and settled very quickly," he said. Mingkwan said that MCOT expected some fallout from the political uncertainty, which might lead to an economic slowdown. "We have diverse sources of incomes from television, radio, joint operations and providing broadcasting concessions to Channel 3 and UBC," said Mingkwan, adding that the state agency would keep its advertising rates the same in the first half of the year. It currently charges between Bt220,000 and Bt240,000 per minute for primetime slots on ModerNine Television. He made his remarks at a press conference yesterday touting MCOT's 2005 results, which showed revenue of Bt3.5 billion, up 17 per cent from 2004. Television revenues grew 18 per cent last year to Bt2.2 billion, while its radio business grew 23 per cent to Bt555 million. It also pocketed Bt722 million in joint operation and concession revenues, up 10 per cent from 2004. Channel 9 derived 31 per cent of its revenue last year from selling timeslots, while 41 per cent came from ad sales for its in- house programmes, and 28 per cent from joint profit-sharing programmes. Mingkwan said that about 70 per cent of last year's advertising revenue was from the private sector and the rest from government agencies. MCOT's pre-tax profits last year grew 35 per cent to Bt1.5 billion, with its net profit leaping 33 per cent to Bt1.1 billion on the previous year. Expenses grew 6 per cent to Bt2 billion from 2004. According to AC Nielsen, the television advertising market as a whole grew to Bt50 billion, up 6 per cent from 2004. Radio advertising grew 3 per cent to Bt7 billion.
Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn The Nation
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