According to The Nation, the head of CTH, a leading Thai pay-TV operator, confirmed that his company has reached a sublicensing deal with MCOT to televise 17 live matches per season of the English Premier League through Modernine TV, until 2016. CTH chief executive officer Kittsanan Ngampathipong said that because of a confidentiality agreement under the EPL terms and conditions, he could not disclose further details.

“As we have a small sales team to work on sponsorship via free television, the sublicensing deal is the right answer,” Kittsanan said.

A source at MCOT revealed earlier that the board led by chairman Sutham Saengpratoom had opted to pay THB140 million for the sublicensing deal with CTH under revenue sharing from advertisements generated from live matches and highlight programmes, added the report. The high-profile executive at MCOT said the live EPL matches would create more revenue for the state media enterprise in the fourth quarter of this year and the first half of 2014 in line with improved audience ratings during that period, according to the report. 

Kittsanan said that as the EPL’s new season was drawing near, CTH was putting emphasis on improving customer services including call centres, recruiting new installers, enhancing the billing system and upgrading software. 

The report adds that the company has faced many problems, including an insufficient labour force of installers, so it wants to double their current number of 2,000. CTH insists that this year’s target remains unchanged at three million subscribers from 400 local dealers and cable TV operators. As of now, Kittsanan admitted that it only had about 60,000 subscribers for its satellite and cable TV networks, according to the report.