ASIA-PACIFIC BROADCASTING

BANGKOK – Majority state-owned Thai broadcaster MCOT is investing around Bt10 billion (US$335 million) to develop an 8.32ha plot of land on Thiam Ruam Mit Road in the Thai capital into an advanced broadcast hub for the region.

Construction will be divided into two phases. The first phase, expected to be completed within three years, comprises a 30,000sqm activity park, a 5,000-seat theatre, and a 59-floor building and broadcast tower. Costs are expected to be in the region of Bt7 billion-Bt8 billion (US$234.7 million-$268 million). The second phase, a building of 60,000sqm, is being considered as a residential project.

According to MCOT’s CFO, Jessada Promjit, the broadcast tower will serve broadcasters when Thailand’s broadcasts go digital. “MCOT wants to act as a transmitter provider so other broadcasters don’t have to invest in their own networks,” added Jessada.

Thailand is expected to complete full analogue switch-off by 2015.

MCOT is currently awaiting budget approval from the Thai Cabinet, although MCOT expects this to be a mere formality, as Jessada explained: “The [Thai] government will almost certainly give the green light to the project because of MCOT’s ambitious goal of promoting the complex as the broadcasting centre for ASEAN.”

MCOT’s new broadcast tower will be positioned as a regional hub for international news agencies and broadcasters, including Japan’s NHK, CNN and the BBC, said MCOT.

Earlier this year, in announcing MCOT’s annual investment budget, MCOT president Tanawat Wansom outlined plans to turn MCOT into one of ASEAN’s leading media operators, including the development of the new broadcast hub. “We have set a key ambition to become one of the leading media operators in ASEAN when the region [liberalises] and becomes a single market in 2015 — when the ASEAN Economic Community becomes a reality.”

MCOT plans to move beyond the production of TV programmes to the creation of movies, reality shows and documentaries — whether in the form of MCOT

productions or co-productions with local and “world-class” producers. “We will not only broadcast our programmes to Thai viewers but [also] export them to other viewers throughout the region,” added Tanawat.

The development of MCOT’s broadcast hub also comes on the back of a bumper second quarter of the year for the Thai broadcaster, who recently announced revenues of Bt1.52 billion in the second quarter of this year, an 18% growth year-on-year, according to Tanawat.

The TV broadcast business from MCOT’s Modernine TV channel posted earnings of Bt1.026 billion, while earnings from the MCOT’s radio broadcast business sector (MCOT Radio network) were reported at Bt227 million, an increase of 0.5%.

Looking ahead, Tanawat projected MCOT’s total revenues and profits in 2011 to grow at least 10% year-on-year, and announced that a revision of its overall programme schedule will take place in January 2012.

MCOT operates Modernine TV (formerly known as MCOT Channel 9), satellite TV channel ASEAN TV, and a nationwide network of 62 radio stations. MCOT also operates the Thai News Agency (TNA) wire service.

 

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