CTH has teamed up with giant pay-TV operator GMM Z to offer a new package of English Premier League (EPL) football called CTHZ with an aim to expand its subscribers.
CTH chairman Wichai Thongtang (left) shakes hands with GMM Grammy chairman Paiboon Damrongchaitham to seal their alliance for the new CTHZ English Premier League package.
GMM Z will take care of marketing for CTHZ Premier League+ HD, which will charge subscribers 999 baht a month. Subscribers can watch six channels of EPL content and another 35 encrypted channels from Fox International.
Late last year, GMM Z offered only a gold package at 199 baht a month for 16 Fox channels and a platinum HD package at 499 baht for 35 Fox channels.
Fahmai Damrongchaitham, chief operating officer of GMM Z, said the EPL package will strengthen its sports content for pay-TV services.
It holds broadcast rights for eight football competitions: Germany's Bundesliga, France's Ligue 1, England's Sky Bet Championship, the Brazilian League, Japan's J League, Netherlands' Eredivisie, the Capital One Cup and Uefa's Euro 2016.
Mr Fahmai said GMM Z has luanched a new model of set-top box called GMM Z HD Lite priced at 1,590 baht. It also offers a special promotion package at 3,299 baht for buyers of the GMM Z HD Lite set-top box with two months of EPL coverage.
The CTHZ package is expected to draw 100,000 new subscribers this year.
CTH chief executive Krissanan Ngampatipong said the collaboration between GMM Z and CTH enhances opportunities to tap potential subscribers through the GMM Z platform.
He acknowledged that the expansion of new subscribers via the cable system is more difficult than via the satellite system.
CTH is using a revenue-sharing scheme for the CTHZ package.
A CTH source said its EPL rights management has passed the halfway mark of the first season. However, its revenue missed its earlier target of about 3 billion baht by about 1 billion baht.
He said the number of subscribers was lower than expected, while the lack of efficient management in billing and collecting subscription fees handled by an outsourced firm was another factor.
However, the billing system was improved last month, the source said.
The source also said CTH will join hands with other satellite TV platform operators such as ThaiSat, LeoSat, DinaSat and Infosat.
CTH is not in talks with key competitor TrueVisions but is open to any revenue-sharing schemes.