Digital TV companies look to billionaires

04 กันยายน 2560

Thailand's wealthiest are buying into operators struggling to keep afloat

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Billionaires play big in digital TV game

Nanat Suchiva

The media business and billionaires seem to attract each other.

At the global level, some billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg are long-time media moguls who made their fortunes in the news business. Others, like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, bought publications as a side investment after building a substantial fortune in another industry.

Hence, it comes as no surprise Thailand has followed the same model. The Chearavanont family owns TrueVisions, the country's leading pay-TV operator, and TNN 24 news station. The Ratanarak family controls Bangkok Broadcasting's Channel 7.

The Chearavanont brothers, led by Dhanin, honorary chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand's agriculture and food conglomerate, is the wealthiest family in Thailand this year, according to Forbes magazine.

When the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission granted 24 digital TV channel licences to 17 winning bidders in April 2014, aviation tycoon Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, a major shareholder of Bangkok Airways and Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Plc, joined the media scrum, as his company, Bangkok Media and Broadcasting Co, the operator of PPTV channel, won a licence.

Intense competition caused many digital TV operators to struggle financially in terms of both revenue and financial support after only three years of operations. Enter the billionaire Sirivadhanabhakdi family, the owner of Thai Beverage Plc and Thailand's second-wealthiest clan according to Forbes magazine, to the digital TV business.

Last year, patriarch Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi's two sons, Thapana and Panote, acquired a 47.6% stake of Amarin Printing and Publishing Plc, while the Prasarttong-Osoth family acquired 50% of One Enterprise Co, a digital TV subsidiary of SET-listed GMM Grammy.

The Sirivadhanabhakdi family via Adelfos Co, the family's investment firm, made another deal last month in the digital TV business, acquiring a 50% stake in GMM Channel Trading Co, the operator of GMM25, the standard-definition digital digital TV channel owned by GMM Grammy Plc.

Media analysts predict going forward, more financially weak operators may turn to billionaire investors to help them survive.

The analysts say the market entry by billionaires into the media and digital TV business is mainly to serve their existing businesses and for risk diversification.

You can read the full story here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1317907/billionaires-play-big-in-digital-tv-game