Loss-ridden CTH confirms plan to shut down on Sept 1
CTH Plc, the loss-ridden pay TV operator owned by lawyer and veteran investor Wichai Thongtang, plans to shut down its service on Sept 1, saying it can no longer withstand the impact of the economic slowdown.
The company made the announcement on Sunday in a message on its website.
Sources at PPTV Channel and GMM Grammy Plc said they acknowledged that CTH could not deal with its massive losses of almost 20 billion baht, noting it had already laid off around 100 employees last month.
Moreover, CTH’s partnerships with satellite TV platform operators have been in trouble since CTH cut its content supply to both the C-band and KU-band systems.
Former top executives and employees from CTH said the company had failed to effectively run its pay TV business even after successfully securing the broadcasting rights for the English Premiere League (EPL) over the past three seasons.
The price tag on the EPL broadcasting rights came in at almost 10 billion baht.
CTH has also failed to attract subscribers and otherwise compete in the tough pay TV market.
Moreover, the sources said CTH has failed to attract enough sponsors, pushing it to sell sub-licensing rights of EPL and Euro 2016 football tournaments to BEC World Plc, the operator of Channel 3.
Last week, TrueVisions, the country’s biggest pay TV operator, successfully acquired sub-licensing rights from Qatar-based BeIn Sports to broadcast EPL football matches for the next three seasons, starting this August.
Pakdee Manaves, deputy secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said the broadcasting committee yesterday had sent a letter informing CTH that if it would like to discontinue its pay TV business, it must send an official letter explaining why and comply with existing rules and regulations.
CTH must contact the NBTC next week if it wants to stop its pay TV service on Sept 1.
CTH cut its content supply via the KUband satellite system yesterday.
Mr Pakdee said the broadcasting committee has already asked the consumer protection subcommittee to send a formal letter asking the loss-ridden pay TV operator to submit a new customer-relief plan.
He said CTH had been told to propose a new customer-relief plan as its previous one was too weak to cover the 40,000 affected customers watching TV via KU-band satellite dishes. The pay TV operator, however, failed to resubmit a new aid proposal.
Mr Wichai could not be reached for comments yesterday.