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Published on March 8, 2008

The new law allows at least six minutes per hour of advertising on cable and satellite television. Until now, such advertising has been banned.

KGI Securities (Thailand) said cable advertising would be huge and a net positive for the industry's coffers. It will allow advertising agencies to target specific niche markets at lower costs than mass media like free television. The growth will be particularly strong during news and sports programmes.

True Visions, the pay-TV operator of True Corp, is expected to gain additional revenue from broadcasting commercials. However, True Corp CEO Supachai Chearavanont said in an interview with The Nation on Wednesday he expected the revenue to account for only 10 per cent of True Visions' total, which he said was in line with the commercial revenue of other pay-TV firms in the region. He also affirmed there would be no reduction in subscriber fees.

He said True Visions planned to launch commercials within programmes this year. True Corp's share price closed at Bt5.20 yesterday, down from Bt5.30 on Thursday.

Free-television broadcasters, programme producers and content producers are interested in exploring opportunities for cable and satellite licences. But they must wait for licences from the new National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation