Siwaporn Chomsuwan, former chief executive of Nation International Edutainment Plc, has been appointed president of MCOT Plc, the SET-listed broadcaster of Channel 9.
He listed his priorities as solving organisational problems and improving performance amid falling profits.
Channel 9 must survive amid heavy digital competition, Mr Siwaporn said.
Siwaporn: Profit boost a priority
The MCOT board, chaired by Tevin Vongvanich, on Tuesday agreed to the appointment of Mr Siwaporn after the company had gone for six months without a president.
Vying for the post were Yutthasak Suppasorn, a former director of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion, and Mr Siwaporn, who was considered a dark-horse candidate.
Nattachak Pattamasingh na Ayuthaya, a board director, said Mr Siwaporn was the most appropriate, as he had expertise and lengthy experience in media.
Besides Nation International, he was also managing director of Amarin Book Center Co, a subsidiary of Amarin Printing and Publishing Plc.
Mr Siwaporn gave a good presentation that laid out his vision and business plan to help MCOT survive fierce competition, Mr Nattachak said.
"The main challenge for the new president is to regain the state-owned broadcaster’s ability and financial status," he said.
In the first nine months of this year, net profit was 450 million baht, down by 62.2% year-on-year, on revenue of 3.4 billion, down by 24.4%. The poor performance was blamed mainly on lower concession fees and high fixed costs, particularly for digital TV licences.
In terms of ratings, Workpoint TV last month took over Channel 9's position as the third most-watched channel in terms of viewers.
Meanwhile, MCOT is adjusting itself to become a digital TV network provider, but revenue from network rents is not sufficient to offset lower concession fee revenue.
Its concession with cable operator TrueVisions expired in September, while concessions with BEC World Plc (analogue) and TrueVisions are scheduled to end in 2020.
MCOT shares closed yesterday on the SET at 18.70 baht, up 70 satang, in trade worth 28.3 million baht.