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Baht/$ 33.40/47
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BROADCASTING
WORANUJ MANEERUNGSEE
BEC World Plc, the operator of television Channel 3, is likely to increase its commercial fees for the third time this year, according to Chatchai Thiamtong, the company's vice-president for finance. ''Do you think our prime time (8-10 pm) TV is like a sponge? Yes, it is. We have absorbed a lot of water (advertising) but there is still plenty of demand waiting for us'' he said yesterday.
Channel 3, the country's second highest-rated channel after Channel 7, has raised its airtime fees twice, in January and May, since the beginning of this year. The third increase could be in October but Mr Chatchai did not specify which period of the day would have higher rates.
The fees during prime time, which generate nearly 70% of all ad revenues, were last raised to 450,000 baht a minute from 420,000 baht.
Mr Chatchai said the reason behind high demand was simple. One commercial station, iTV/TITV was transformed to the commercial-free Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS) early this year. That caused spending on TV to fall by 7.67% to 11.7 billion baht in the first quarter of the year.
But the remaining operators have seen a windfall. Channel 3 reported 7.9% growth in ad revenues in the first quarter of the year.
As a result, he said, 2008 would be another record year for BEC World, with double-digit growth.
''The current economic and political situation has not affected our business. A number of companies still keep spending on ads and we haven't relied on any specific group of advertisers,'' Mr Chatchai said. He also reiterated that the company was not rushing into the satellite TV business even though the new Broadcasting Act liberalised satellite TV in March.
He has encouraged small investors to invest in BEC, aiming to increase the liquidity of BEC shares. Small investors hold only 3% of total shares, local institutions 10%, the Maleenont family 57%, with the remainder in the hands of foreign institutions at 30%.
The company reported net profits of 670 million baht in the first quarter, up 29% from fourth quarter of last year.
BEC shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 24.50 baht, down 75 satang, in trade worth 78.9 million baht.
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