Within 24 hours, iTV — the country’s only independent broadcaster — had been resurrected under an unintentionally rude new name, TITV (short for Thai Independent Television).
It had new management — the Government’s public relations department (PRD). And its acting director, Chira Hongladarom, had resigned after one day in the job. The saga, says MindShare Thailand’s managing director Stephanie Bell, “had all the trappings of a Thai drama”.
The decision to close iTV came after the channel failed to meet a deadline to pay annual fees and a huge penalty for breach of contract. When iTV was founded in 1995 it was obliged, as the country’s sole independent station, to broadcast with a ratio of 70:30 news to entertainment programming.
But when the channel was bought by Thaksin Shinawatra’s Shin Corp, and ultimately sold to Singapore’s Temasek in January last year, that ratio slipped. Ratings-winning dramas were preferred to investigative news that dared venture into politics (on which iTV had built its name) and the station soon wound up in court.
Bankruptcy still hangs over ITV. The fine, say politicians, must be paid somehow. Meanwhile, its successor, TITV, is without a leader. And the local press is wondering how TITV can retain its independence run by the PRD, or if the channel ever had a truly independent voice — especially after Thaksin took over and its news became conspicuously pro-Government.
Independent or not, Thailand’s media industry needs TITV to survive in one form or another, says Wannee Ruttanaphon, chairman of Initiative Thailand. “We need a viable commercial alternative to channels 3 and 7 (the market leaders, with 75 per cent ad revenue share between them) to bring some balance to the market.
“The other channels are not strong enough, and the market will become non-competitive and TV inflation rates could speed up.”
Although nothing is certain, most observers believe an investor will be found to bail TITV out. While the channel may have flouted its promise to be more informative than entertaining, it has become more popular in so doing.
Its comedies, dramas and the Thai version of Who wants to be a millionaire? have won favour with advertisers in recent years, and, at its peak, it was Thailand’s third most popular channel.
But for now, the uncertainty is not good for anyone linked to TITV. Media agencies report that jittery clients have cancelled spots due to run on TITV, and the channel’s monthly ad revenues of 130 million baht (US$3.9 million) will almost certainly be hit.
If there is any consolation, it is that TITV’s 1,000 staff, who believed they had lost their jobs for a day, will have enjoyed seeing TITV’s ratings jump as curious viewers tuned in to see how the station reported its own story.
