Saha mongkol joins satellite TV revolution

Saha Mongkol Film International will become the latest entrant into the free satellite-TV business by soft-launching Mongkol Channel in Indochina on June 10 with movies, including those from its vast library.

"We have high confidence that our movies, which have already gained very good feedback in the region, will be the main magnet of the channel there. There are also a lot of Thais living there who want to watch a channel totally operated by a Thai company," vice president Vichaya Jarujinda said yesterday.

Thai Mongkol Multimedia, set up at a cost of Bt30 million, will formally launch the C-Band channel on July 1.

Besides Thai movies, it will show international films, entertainment news and variety programmes.

It will tap more than 300 movies that Saha Mongkol Film has created over the past 38 years. Other group companies will produce variety programmes to run on the channel. And it will use actors and actresses on contract with Saha Mongkol Film to host its variety shows, which no other cable TV channel has done before, Vichaya said.

Viewers in Bangkok have to install a satellite dish while those upcountry can get the signal from about 500 members of the Thailand Cable TV Association.

Audiences in the region have to get a decoder and pay a subscription fee.

The company is negotiating with cable TV operators in the US and Europe to carry Mongkol Channel by next year.

The station's main income will come from advertising and renting airtime to TV programme producers, but Vichaya declined to reveal expected revenue figures, saying the company expected to break even by the middle of next year.

It also plans to spend Bt40 million to develop two more channels for international and Asian movies.

Since early this year, it is the fourth local company to join the business after the Broadcasting Act became effective last week, following Media Touche (Thailand), Media of Medias and CVD Entertainment, which is under the umbrella of free-TV Channel 3 operator BEC World.