RS Plc, the country’s second largest entertainment company, expects its Channel 8 will be among the top three digital TV stations within three years after seeing a significant rise in ratings during the first month of broadcast trials.
Pornpan Techarungchaikul (right), chief operating officer of RS, and Ong-art Singlumpong, executive vice-president of Channel 8, at the launch of the new digital TV station.
Chief operating officer Pornpan Techarungchaikul said viewership grew 30% in just one month of the trials, a positive sign for the new digital channel in the highly competitive market.
“Digital TV began offering proof that it can help us gain more viewers. And it’s worthwhile for us to join this bandwagon, transforming ourselves from a satellite TV to a free TV operator,” she said, adding that the shift to digital channels came earlier than expected.
Channel 8 will spend 2 billion baht on its content during the next three years. It will produce 95% of its own TV programmes and the remainder will be content from the others. RS will reserve some money to pay for content copyrights.
“We hope Channel 8 will be popular among viewers and generate 850 million baht in revenue in the first year of operation,” Ms Pornpan said.
Channel 8 will operate under the slogan of “Your Friend Everywhere, TV for Everyone”, in line with the channel’s positioning, targeting viewers of all demographics. The station has been upgraded from a satellite TV channel. RS still has four more channels under the satellite platform.
RS Television, a subsidiary of RS, secured a licence from the digital TV auction late last year to operate Channel 8 in the standard-definition variety category at a cost of 2.27 billion baht.
Ong-art Singlumpong, executive vice-president of Channel 8, said variety shows will account for 50% of all programmes, soap operas 25%, and the rest will be news content.
The new programme line-up began on April 25 with five new soap operas as the highlight, which take up four hours a day. It hopes soap operas will draw mass viewers.
News programmes will increase to six hours a day from four hours, under the concept of news talk to make the content easier to understand.
The news content is produced by an in-house team of more than 100 professional staff and reporters.
Moreover, Channel 8 will also air 22 matches of the Fifa World Cup, similar to Channel 7, a free TV station in the analogue system, from June 2 to July 13.
Channel 8’s prime time is set for 6-9pm and there will be a singing contest show, Siang Sawan Pichit Fan, and soap operas. RS’s soap operas gained the highest viewership when they were aired on the satellite TV platform.
Ms Pornpan said RS avoided arranging its highlight programmes on Channel 8 in a similar manner to some free TV stations.
Its new ad rates are set at 20,000-200,000 baht a minute, effective in June, doubling the rates of its satellite TV channels.
RS shares closed yesterday on the SET at 8.05 baht, down 20 satang, in trade worth 40.2 million baht.