Duangkamol Chotana, chief executive officer of NMG, said a dividend of Bt0.03 per share for 4,067.64 million shares or a total of Bt122 million for 2015 operations will be paid on May 24 this year. In addition, the shareholders’ meeting yesterday approved the appointment of Pichita Mahaphol as an independent director, replacing Chaveng Jariyapisut who completed his term.

Pichita was a former managing director of King Power Hotel and Management Co and executive director of BTS Group. The shareholders’ meeting also approved Kemkorn Vachirawarakarn and Adisak Limprungpatanakij as directors for another term.

Duangkamol said the print business had slowed due to the sluggish economic condition and changing consumer behaviour prompting the company to boost its onlined contents while the digital TV business is improving with NOW26 reporting an increase of viewers over the past six months. As of March 31, 2016, NOW26 reached 53 million viewers with an average rating of 0.127 and was ranked 13th among all digital TV channels. In the past six months, the number of viewers has more than doubled, especially during prime time when the average rating was 0.33 per cent due to high quality documentaries and other programming. She said NOW26 aims to be in the top-10 ranking with emphasis on more domestic and international sports events such as Thai boxing, vollayball, basketball, and taekundo.

Meanwhile, Siriwat Worawetwuthikun, a minor shareholder, said NMG should consider taking legal actions against those who violated share acquisition rules as recently identified by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC earlier said Siwasit Sainampeuang, Polaris Capital and News Network had violated the rules when acquiring more than 25 per cent shares of NMG without making a tender offer.