Thai broadcaster BEC World is in the vanguard of an emerging breed of domestic media companies with an eye on regional opportunities. Surin Krittayaphongphun, BEC Multimedia Co’s TV business president, speaks about life on the frontlines of change. 

BEC World remains one of Thailand’s most significant producers and leads the country’s international distribution initiatives with new IP such as My Forever Sunshine, Deceitful Love, Repercussion, My Husband in Law and Scent of Love following established dramas such as Love Destiny and Thong Ek on domestic and international schedules. 

The Bangkok-based national broadcaster has also forged landmark partnerships with the likes of mainland China’s Tencent for simulcast rights in China and WeTV in other countries and has an ongoing alliance with Bangkok-based distributor, JKN Global Media, that has landed BEC World content on mass market, free-TV stations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore for the first time as well as on regional streaming platforms. 

Thai broadcast veteran, Surin Krittayaphongphun, who returned to BEC World as TV business president in July this year, says the priority continues to fulfill Thai viewing tasted across all age groups. The company makes about 1,000 hours – between 30 and 40 titles – of original drama a year across all genres. BEC World’s TV network, Channel 3, acquires between 5% and 10% of its schedule a year.

As Channel 3 prepared to premiere two Q4 2020 prime-time dramas, My Forever Sunshine (November) and Deceitful Love (October), Krittayaphongphun says: “We hope to continue to make programmes that fit Thai and foreign tastes in China, the rest of Asia and other markets.”

New shows join almost 50-years worth of Channel 3 drama production, creating a deep and wide library that includes some of Thailand’s most iconic titles, such as Kon Rerng Muang (1980), which was so popular that it was later made into a movie; Kam Pi Pak Sa (The Justice, 1985), which broke new ground for a story by writer Suwanni Sukhontha about a person judged unfairly by society; the station’s first period drama, Prissana; horror drama, Mae Nak Prakanong, starring Trerak Rakkandee as a woman who dies giving birth while her husband is at war but stays back as a ghost until he returns; Pongpat Wachirabunjong’s Angel Heart (Thong Nua Kao, 2013), starring James Jirayu in the story of a boy who steps up to fill his mother’s shortcomings; and, more recently, the mythic fantasy Nakee (2016). 

What’s your experience so far with your own streaming platform Ch3+? “We’ve been able to reach younger viewers, which is an objective set from the beginning when we set up Ch3+. Going forward, we have a very good idea on how to make the platform a place for the younger generation to come and watch our programmes. It will completely complement our offline business.”

What is your opinion on SVOD and AVOD and their contribution to BEC’s businesses in Thailand? “At the moment, BEC’s business is more AVOD.  Going forward, we expect more revenue from SVOD. Looking at our 50 years of creating Thai drama, we believe that SVOD could be another important revenue stream for BEC”. 

What do you think the biggest challenges for free-TV broadcasters in Thailand are? “The same as all broadcasters in the world. We are facing changing behaviour of viewers. Technology has changed TV viewing fast and drastically. We have to adapt, change the way we do things and focus on where our viewers are. In addition to serving loyal viewers in traditional ways, we are building Ch3+ to draw younger viewers to our programmes.” 

What are the key threats, threats and challenges in expanding to global markets? “It’s very difficult to compete on a global scale. We have competitors who have been in this business for for a long time from Korea, China, India, the Philippines and Japan. I think those are the competitors who are very difficult for us. Besides the competition, there are regulations we have to face. We have to adapt to various censorship policies and requirements. These are really new to us. For Thai content to go global, there is a lot for us to learn. I won’t say that’s a threat, but it’s something that we have to learn to be able to grow our business.”

You mentioned censorship. How does this impact your business? “We are selling our content to international markets. Each market has its own regulations. Censorship systems in certain markets may take longer than other markets. If we have a day-and-date simultaneous release in Thailand and across other markets, all clearances have to be aligned. This may cause a delay to the premiere date in Thailand.”

What are you hoping for now with your regional and international distribution business? “We have done well in Asian markets, and we hope that we will continue to do well in other markets, especially in bigger markets such as China, Korea and Latin America. Besides selling content, we plan to do more activities, offer more to the markets, to viewers in the markets that we sell our content to. If possible, we might be able, in certain markets, to bring in our stars, actors, actresses to meet and greet local fans in each market. Probably, who knows, we might be able to start other businesses such as consumer products...”

Published in ContentAsia's Issue Three 2020, October 2020