Thai pay-TV set for continued growth

Thailand’s cable and satellite TV industry will be challenged by new rules, new players and advanced technology. Despite this, John Medeiros, chief policy officer at CASBAA told The Nation that there is still room to grow in the near future. 

“Thailand is a very interesting and dynamic market in the way it is developing, and this offers many opportunities to related players.”

Last year, pay-TV business alone witnessed a surge in revenue of about 53 per cent to Bt5.24 billion, according to CASBAA. Thailand is a unique market in the region as it has a large base of satellite-TV viewers. More than half of the households in the Kingdom watch programmes via satellite receivers.

Apart from digital terrestrial television, newcomers in pay TV, namely Cable Thai Holdings (CTH), GMM Z and RS, will intensify the competition in the broadcasting industry this year. CASBAA believes that this level of competition will boost subscriptions, resulting in more advertising revenue for the pay-TV business.