Although pirate players represent about 90 per cent of the market, new kids in town such as VOD service providers are still enjoying tremendous growth in terms of revenue and subscriber base. One such business – iflix Thailand – has just celebrated its first anniversary in the Kingdom.

While declining to reveal its number of Thai subscribers, the company said the 67-million population made it one of the business’s top three markets in the region, along with the Philippines and Indonesia.

Currently, the Malaysia-headquartered service provider has around 5 million registered members, with a combined 10 million minutes of viewing per day.

MonoMaxxx, a Thailand-based VOD provider, said it now had 1 million subscribers.

Patompong Sirachairat, chief operating officer and vice president for Internet business at Mono Technology – the operator of this VOD application – estimated that subscriptions would more than double as Thai audiences were shifting demand from DVD rental to VOD.

Meanwhile, another local player, Doo Nee, by the end of this year expects to see threefold growth in its subscriber base, which is currently in the tens of thousands. More importantly, when it comes to the time spent by subscribers on VOD service, the figures abstracted from each of these leading operators show a significant increase.

Artima Suraphongchai, co-founder and head of marketing strategy at iflix Thailand, said iflix’s members in Thailand now watched an average of 165 minutes each day, the second-highest in the region after the Philippines, with 184 minutes.

Joe Suteestarpon, chief executive officer of Doo Nee, said the average time spent in watching VOD programmes via his firm’s platform during weekdays was one to two hours a day, rising to three to four hours daily on weekends.

The MonoMaxxx app, meanwhile, seems to be more attractive for local audiences than those of its peers, as it offers an average of 30 films a day.

Similar to the TV broadcasting industry, the most popular VOD genres among Thai audiences are TV series, dramas and Hollywood films, while the majority of viewers for all categories are male. Moreover, a majority of VOD members prefer enjoying watching this content on mobile devices than via websites.

Artima said 57 per cent of iflix’s Thai members preferred enjoying watching the company’s content on their mobiles, and 43 per cent on websites.

The most favourite genre is dramas, followed by comedies and South Korean series, she added.

For Doo Nee, males represent 55 per cent of the viewer base, while the most popular content is TV dramas, followed by concerts and shows, documentaries and cartoons. Monomaxxx has seen a similar pattern, with 64 per cent of its viewership being male.

The most watched programmes of the business are Asian TV series.

Asked whether VOD could compete with TV stations, Joe said he disagreed with this notion, saying that VOD service would remain an extended service from the main screen – normally television.

Realising the importance of this, Doo Nee works with several local TV stations such as TV5, Nation TV and Now 26 to supply them with TV |content for first runs and then bring those viewers who missed the shows to its catch-up service on the Doo Nee app.

“We have to manage the right balance between subscription-based revenue and advertising-based earnings for sustainable growth while the Thai VOD market is develops towards a mature stage,” he explained.

In Patompong’s view, MonoMaxxx is a key piece completing Mono Technology’s jigsaw of providing a total video-service solution. He explained that apart from this subscription VOD service, his company currently operated the Mono29 free-to-air TV station and MThai website, which also provided free VOD service.

On the other hand, regional players such as iflix are also placing more emphasis on partnering with local leading TV production houses to provide exclusive offers to their membership.

Artima said her company had signed an agreement with the rights manager of GMM Thai Hub’s movies to bring many of its big blockbuster films – “Suck Seed”, “Pee Mak”, “May Nai Fai Rang Frer”, “Bangkok Traffic Love Story”, “ATM: Er Rak”, “Error”, “Seven Something” and “The Billionaire” – to the iflix platform.

“We are also in talks with several local TV production houses in seeking further collaboration as well as content acquisition to enhance our exclusive service,” she added.

Recently, iflix Thailand signed an exclusive agreement with Kantana Motion, part of Thai entertainment giant Kantana Group.

Under the deal, iflix will have the rights to provide 13 episodes of “The Graveyard Story: uncut version” to its members.

“The Graveyard Story” was originally produced by new-generation executives at Kantana for airing on Channel 7 every Wednesday night. Iflix members will get exclusive access to the TV horror series as a catch-up service via both the iflix mobile app and website under a single standard monthly package, priced at Bt100, the head of marketing strategy said.