TV channels are facing a high fluctuation in ratings and viewership, which will lead advertisers to run shorter ad schedules this year.
A survey on digital TV viewing behaviour by IPG Mediabrands last month found that 95% of people in Thailand were aware of digital TV, up from 91% last year. Digital TV's penetration rate rose to 88%, up from 79% last year.
However, the main viewing platform for audiences to watch digital TV channels is via satellite TV set-top boxes, while digital TV set-top boxes have replaced terrestrial antenna by 22%, up from 6% last year.
Kanokkarn Prajongsangsri, managing director for investment and knowledge at IPG, said viewers would remember only certain channels, those with their favourite content.
The five most recognised channels are Workpoint TV, Channel 7, Thairath TV, One HD TV and Channel 3 and this means that some new digital TV channels can beat free TV channels in the analogue system like Channel 3 and Channel 7.
Ms Kanokkarn said viewers' behaviour had also changed significantly and the fan base of analogue channels had dropped from 52% last year to 38% at present, while digital TV fans doubled from 8% last year to the current 16%. About 44% of viewers watch content on both analogue and digital TV channels.
"Variety of content is the most distinctive factor for the success of digital TV channels," she said.
With the popularity of certain digital TV channels, major advertisers such as Unilever, Beiersdorf and Toyota are set to allocate bigger budgets for digital TV and some plan to spend up to 25% of their budgets.
Payao Thammateerasuntorn, TV investment manager of marketing and communications company Mindshare Thailand, said the media industry is very dynamic and TV viewership and ratings have been fluctuating since the advent of digital TV in April last year.
"This has lead many advertisers to plan shorter advertising spending, such as one month to avoid changes in the ratings," she said.
TV ratings agency Nielsen Thailand noted that Channel 7 is still the most viewed channel but its average rating had suffered a big drop, particularly during the prime time from 3.184 points in December to 2.765 points last month. Its highest rating last month was 12.4 points.
Channel 3 also saw its January viewership decline by 19% from the month before.
Ms Kanokkarn said about 30% of viewers had not adopted digital TV set-top boxes. She said the reason given by such viewers is that they did not see any need to change their satellite TV set-top boxes as they can still watch digital TV together with a lot of satellite and cable channels from their existing boxes.