TrueVisions, the country's largest pay-TV operator, is interested in sub-lease broadcast rights for English Premier League football (EPL) from Cable Thai Holding (CTH), the new rights holder.
Ongard Prapakamol (left), chief commercial officer of TrueVisions, poses with Chulathai Saligupta, senior manager for programming, to promote more sports content. The companyis not giving up on broadcasting English Premier League football.
Industry analysts view the move as TrueVisions lunging to prevent subscriber loss, though the company says its churn rate is only 1%.
"We're open to every option with CTH, but we can't expect we will come to terms as CTH hasn't finalised talks with anybody," said chief commercial officer Ongard Prapakamol.
CTH, the newly established cable TV operator, secured the EPL broadcast rights for the next three seasons starting this August for an unofficial sum of 10 billion baht, four to five times higher than TrueVisions' bill for the 2010-2012 seasons.
Mr Ongard said the sub-lease will depend on the price, the number and quality of matches, as well as the broadcast definition.
TrueVisions has 2 million subscribers nationwide.
It was reported earlier CTH had some problems with small cable TV operators that were unhappy with strict conditions in the partnership contracts with CTH. This could affect CTH's broadcast network in the coming months. Up to now, CTH hasn't introduced an EPL package to attract sports fans.
CTH chairman Wichai Thongtang said it is in talks with TrueVisions about sub-leasing the EPL broadcast rights to increase viewership.
Mr Ongard said if TrueVisions does not secure EPL broadcast rights for the next season, it will try to compensate customers by securing the rights for leading sports and adding extra high-definition channels. TrueVisions has 17 HD channels out of 146 total.
However, the pay-TV operator is still confident it can grow its revenue by 10% this year despite the expiry of EPL rights.
"If we lose the EPL it doesn't mean we have totally failed. We still have other quality content to help us grow," he said.
TrueVisions will announce new packages without the EPL in 30 days.
It is estimated some hardcore EPL fans will shift to CTH before the new season starts in August. However, some may switch to cheaper packages rather than cancel their TrueVisions' subscriptions.
Of total subscribers, about 25% or 500,000 can watch all the EPL games, comprising 400,000 with the gold package and 100,000 using platinum.
"Our subscribers don't watch only sports. Family members have different demands when watching TV. That's why we believe they won't leave us," said Mr Ongard.
Chulathai Saligupta, TrueVisions' senior manager for programming, said it secured rights for the Thai Volleyball League, French Open tennis (with two matches broadcast live simultaneously in HD), motorcycle races and 34 more Thai Premier League matches. It still holds the rights to the Uefa Champions League from 2012 to 2014.