“We are now working with social media like YouTube, Line TV and Facebook, from which our company gets earns a significant share of |revenue from our video content |provided via those networks,” Chalakorn Panyashom, chief operating officer of the entertainment company, said yesterday.

So far this year, content supplied to YouTube has generated more than Bt50 million in revenue, compared with Bt20 million in all of last year. Total revenue from all social-media platforms has reached approximately Bt60 million to Bt70 million so far this year.

Chalakorn said this new revenue stream was continuing to rise. Therefore, the company is seeking further collaboration with big players in this market like Facebook.

“Interestingly, after our digital TV channel ‘Workpoint TV’ offered some top-rated programmes via those social-media outlets, this has resulted in a larger audience of our live shows on TV screens, instead of pushing them away from the main screen,” he said.

In the meantime, the company will also put more effort into |developing the quality of its TV|programmes to maintain and enhance its audience share amid the fierce competition expected in |the TV broadcasting industry next year.

Currently, Workpoint’s official YouTube account is ranked No 1 among Thai TV broadcasters with 3.67 million subscribers. Its Facebook fanpage has received more than 20 million “likes” and its official Line TV account has more than 16.7 million friends.

The company has earmarked about Bt600 million for TV production and content development for 2017 while targeting total revenue of Bt3.5 billion, up from this year’s Bt3 billion.

Workpoint TV is expected to make Bt3 billion in revenue next year, while the other Bt500 million will come from other business such as event organising and its TV production service.

Chalakorn stressed that the company’s digital TV channel would retain its top position as the king of variety shows as it had been in this field more than 26 years.

“Variety shows continue to be |our flagship programmes to attract both audiences and advertising,” he said.