Kittinut Tikawan, True Corp’s chief commercial officer, said the localised version would serve True Move H users only.

The Pokemon Go launched in Thailand on August 6 is the international version, which can be downloaded by all mobile-phone users regardless of which company they subscribe to.

True is in talks with Niantic Inc and the Pokemon Company on the details of the localised licence, and the negotiations are expected to be finalised next month, Kittinut said.

The launch will include a mobile data package for Pokemon players.

Currently True holds licences for merchandised Pokemon characters and sponsorship rights.

He said True was in the process of awarding sponsorship deals, selecting only one company from each business sector.

Key drivers of revenue growth

Kittinut said Pokemon Go would be one of two key drivers of revenue growth for TrueMove H, which is targeting growth of more than 20 per cent this year.

The other key revenue source will be the right to broadcast the English Premier League on pay-TV and online, he said.

True expects to see continued growth of mobile data usage on its network. It expects 10 million subscribers to its fourth-generation service by the end of this year, double the current number.

In a separate matter, True yesterday introduced TrueMove H Deaf SIM cards for people with hearing disabilities.

The SIM cards offer free unlimited mobile data usage for messaging applications, video apps, and captioned phone apps of the Thai Telecommunication Relay Service centre.

“TV broadcasters are requiring not only more capacity to store their growing content library but also various ways to distribute those contents via multi-platforms.

“To deal with this challenge, it is very important to have high performance and cost-effective media asset management,” Michael Namatinia, president for the Asia-Pacific market at Vizrt Thailand, said yesterday.

Over the next three years, local broadcasters would invest about US$20 million (Bt690 million) to $25 million on facilities and technology related to media asset management on top of regular expenditures on other advanced broadcasting systems and studio automation, he said.

Vizrt Thailand has enlisted Hitachi Data Systems, a leading data management and technology company, to increase their capacity in managing media assets and supporting workflow from content acquisition to broadcasting and online distribution.

“Due to the change in new media, particularly online video consumption, the demand from local broadcasters in terms of content distribution across multi-platforms has shifted to exponential growth after experiencing linear growth during the past three years,” said Marrut Manistitya, managing director for Thailand and Myanmar at Hitachi Data Systems.

After striking this deal, Vizrt aims to see a 25-30-per-cent expansion in its media asset management service this year.

Namatinia acknowledged that the investment on this segment in Thailand was still low, while at the global level, only 7 per cent of investment on broadcasting systems was budgeted for this purpose.

The good news is that the PPTV digital TV channel in Thailand already has this technology along with other cutting-edge broadcasting systems from Vizrt and Hitachi.

“Despite facing an economy slowing down this year, Thailand is still a healthy and advanced market for the company in the Southeast Asian countries,” he said.

So more clients are expected to be welcomed this year on top of existing ones such as Channel 3 and its network, Channel 7, Channel 5, Modernine TV, Thai PBS, Thairath TV, New TV, Voice TV, Now26, PPTV, True4U, Matichon TV and Media Studios.

Vizrt is also continuing to expand its client base in neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, where terrestrial TV broadcasting is in a digital transition.

Early this year, the company established a sales and marketing representative in Yangon, the commercial city of Myanmar, and welcomed MRTV as its first client.

Did you know?

Vizrt’s Asia Pacific Head Quarter is based in Bangkok. Why?

1. Human resource in Thailand, which has a professional capable of research and development
2. Strategic location, at the centre of Asia Pacific with a very good infrastructure ie. Internet and telecom and broadcasting service
3. A good client base, which is considerably a perfect ground to test and develop new solutions and services

Although the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand reported that passengers in the second quarter were on a rising trend with 12.0-per-cent growth from same quarter last year, Thai Airways International, Nok Air and Bangkok Airways experienced net losses due to multiple factors.

The serial bombings last week are expected to bring turbulence to the airline and tourism industries this quarter.

THAI president Charamporn Jotikasthira said yesterday that the group suffered a quarterly operating loss of Bt1.78 billion, which was a 62.2-per-cent improvement from the same time last year.

Adding an impairment loss of assets and aircraft under the airline’s transformation plan of Bt2.30 billion and a gain on foreign exchange of Bt595 million brought the loss to a net Bt2.92 billion.

The national airline, however, showed positive performance for the first half year with a Bt5.39-billion profit compared with a loss of Bt297 million in the same half last year. The airline said the multiple factors of high competition, low-season traffic, terrorism in Europe and the emergence of low-cost airlines caused a 0.6-per-cent decrease in passengers while its cabin factor was 69 per cent, a slight drop from the same time last year.

The blasts last week at major tourist destinations did not ruffle its reservations much, but if there are more incidents, the airline may suffer a lot of cancellations.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand said 100,000-200,000 tourists had cancelled trips to Thailand after the attacks, wiping out Bt5 billion to Bt10 billion in revenue.

However, bookings for September 15 to December 31 were running 2 per cent ahead of the same period last year.

Nuanwan Bhuprasert, chief financial officer of Nok Airlines, the operator of low-cost carrier Nok Air, said the group lost Bt864.38 million in the second quarter, worse than the Bt458.00 million lost in the same quarter last year.

In the second quarter, Nok Air and its subsidiaries generated revenue of Bt3.91 billion.

The decline in revenue came mainly from the reduction of domestic flights to fit pilot capacity and a drop of 3.1 per cent in passengers.

Passenger yield declined 8.9 per cent, while the available seat kilometre (ASK) rate edged up by 1.0 per cent from the same quarter last year, as the company launched international routes and increased flight frequencies.

Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways, said last week that in the second quarter, revenue rose 8.8 per cent year on year to Bt6.05 billion by carrying more passengers.

Profit before tax was Bt491.7 million, but additional taxes of Bt447 million filed because of the change in the calculation for tax privileges granted by the Board of Investment caused the company to realise a net loss of Bt111.9 million.

The change in rules was announced by the Finance Ministry on June 16.

For the first half, revenue climbed by 12.5 per cent to Bt13.83 billion and net profit by 23 per cent to Bt1.46 billion.

Charamporn said THAI began using a new reservation system and network-management system this month.

It expects to see a difference in three months.

It also plans to increase revenue from its alliances with other airlines from 5 per cent currently to 20 per cent by next year.

Sales revenue in the quarter reached Bt2.3586 billion, up 13.7 per cent, it reported.

The company said innovation was the key factor increasing its global market share. In addition, signs of recovery in the Thai automotive sector are expected to benefit EPG. Its revenue target for this year is between Bt10 billion and Bt11 billion.

Associate Professor Chalieo Vitoorapakorn, deputy chief executive officer of Eastern Polymer Group, a manufacturer of polymers and plastic products, said two segments of its business contributed to the solid quarterly performance.

These were its Aeroflex thermal-insulation business and its automotive parts and accessories business under the Aeroklas and TJM brands — the latter for four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Meanwhile, its EPP plastic and packaging business suffered a slight decline due to slower domestic consumption. The automotive business under Aeroklas and TJM posted quarterly revenue of Bt1.0267 billion, up by 30.9 per cent year on year thanks to international demand.

In addition, Aeroklas continued to develop new products such as pickup bed liners, canopies, side steps and other products such as geomembrane |multipurpose plastic sheets for agricultural applications.

Aeroflex benefited from domestic and international demand for thermal insulation, especially premium-grade products used in buildings and many important landmarks in the United States and Japan. Aeroflex sales revenue totalled Bt678 million, an increase of 7.4 per cent year on year.

For the plastic and packaging business, sales revenue was Bt645 million, slightly softening by 0.8 per cent year on year or Bt5 million.

With the current economic situation where domestic growth in gross domestic product is forecast at 3.2 per cent and the slight slowdown in the global economy, EPG expects to continue operating according to its yearly plan.