An industry source said some advertising agencies would renew their contracts with Nielsen |even though they have already signed five-year deals with the Media Research Development Association (MRDA) to hire Kantar Media to conduct the |new advanced TV rating measurement.

Pawat Ruangdejworachai, vice president of Media Insight, told The Nation recently that his company would continue to subscribe to data from both research companies next year despite bearing higher costs than this year.

“As a media agency, we are pleased to work with all parties to make sure that their advertising investments via [various] media outlets return the most efficiency and satisfactory results,” he said.

MRDA vice president Wannee Rattanaphon said yesterday that to bring the new system to life, 21 ad-media agencies representing 95 per cent of all advertising buyers and media traders, 14 of the 24 digital terrestrial TV operators, and satellite TV channels had signed contracts with the association.

The MRDA’s members will cover about 70 per cent of the total cost of this project while the remaining 30 per cent will be contributed by Kantar Media. Under these conditions, Kantar will be able to sell data to its clients.

Wannee acknowledged that MRDA members still needed to buy data from the existing system throughout this year while having to pay for the cost of establishing the new multi-screen audience measurement. But this set-up cost would not be as high as the normal data subscription fee, about Bt8 million a year. Nick Burfitt, who recently relocated from London to Singapore as managing director for Kantar Media’s Asia-Pacific operations, said the establishment of the system would run from next month until next April before providing results.

Despite being challenged by the new competitor, Nielsen reaffirmed that it was continuing to invest in TV audience measurement. For example, it is increasing its household panel to 3,000 next year from 2,400 now to cover the expansion of the digital terrestrial TV network, and developing new digital technology to serve its long-term clients.

It is clear that market leaders Channel 7 and RS Channel 8 have no intention of joining the MRDA’s system. Six other digital-TV broadcasters – True4U, TNN24, One31, GMM25, Mono29 and PPTV – are considering the details before making their final decisions.

‘Strong relationships’

“We strongly believe that our long-term relationships with a number of major advertising spenders in the Kingdom remains constructive, strong and bold,” Sinthu Peatrarut, managing director for Nielsen’s media client leadership, told The Nation. “With our commitment to keep developing the digital service, this will encourage them to stay with us.”

Nielsen plans to launch a new TV-audience measurement called “digital content ratings” early next year. Collected from 20 million Facebook accounts and other sources permitted by its partnered broadcasters, the data will be analysed and used as a “common currency” for TV ratings.

The company aims to secure at least two-year deals with its prospective subscribers.

The airline is commencing daily flights to Bangkok with brand-new cabin products on the Boeing 777-300ER, which replaces the Airbus A340-300 that has been used on the route, he said, adding that SWISS’s capacity on the route will increase by more than one-third as a result.

“This is a key milestone in the history of SWISS and we are very proud to bring this accomplishment to our customers and partners in Thailand,” the executive said.

Pullem said the airline was not unduly worried about the prevailing economic uncertainty in Europe, and especially the UK’s recent Brexit vote to leave the European Union, as it believed tourists would continue to travel to Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia.

Dirk Grossmann, general manager for Passenger Sales Thailand and the Mekong Region at Germany’s Lufthansa Group – of which SWISS is a subsidiary – said the group had introduced Eurowings into the Thai market late last year in order to cope with the strong market in the region, and Bangkok continued to be an important Asian hub for the group’s operations.

SWISS’s new Boeing 777-300ER has a total of 340 seats: eight in first class, 62 in business class and 270 in economy.

The airline is offering three data packages for its inflight Internet option, with first-class customers being provided a 50MB package free of charge.

During the introductory period, the airline will be offering special fare deals for the Bangkok-Zurich route from July 29 to August 9.

A round-trip inclusive economy-class ticket starts at Bt21,000, well below the normal market price of about Bt28,000 and lower than the peak rate some years ago, which climbed to more than Bt30,000 on the route.

Currently, only SWISS and Thai Airways International operate the Bangkok-Zurich route.

Ivan Breiter, director for Southeast Asia at Switzerland Tourism, said the region had become an important source market for the country’s tourism.

Thailand is the leading source market in the region, while the Vietnamese market is growing rapidly, he said.

Myanmar, which has just opened its doors, is a highly promising market, while the tourism sector in Cambodia and Laos is on track, he added.

Last year, more than 98,000 Thais travelled to Switzerland, staying for a total of 160,000 nights.

After establishing a regional office in Singapore in 2012, Switzerland Tourism predicted that arrivals from Southeast Asia would grow by around 12 per cent per year until 2020.

He said the expansion would be made through three options – establishing sales representatives, forming joint ventures, or making its own investment.

Under the third option, the company estimates that acquiring a piece of land of about 3,000 to 4,000 square metres to construct a standalone store would cost around Bt100 million per location, and the project should reach break-even point within seven operational years.

“The big challenge for our company is that prices and rental rates of land in Laos and Cambodia are three time as high as in Thailand. But there is more room to grow in those markets,” Kijja said.

Apart from those neighbouring countries, the company currently exports its products other markets including Russia and India.

The company is also planning to add more outlets in this country in the years to come. In the second half of this year, it plans to open a new 15,000sqm store in the Ratchaphruek area, worth Bt500 million. It now has three stores, at Ekamai-Ramintra, Bang Na and Pattaya.

Kijja said his company wanted to open at least one new outlet a year.

Despite the economic slowdown, the company is still confident of achieving its revenue target of Bt1 billion this year, up 15 per cent from Bt850 million last year, because its target customers are in the upper- and middle-income brackets and have suffered minimal impact from the economic conditions.

Those market segments still have high demand and purchasing power, reflected by the sales growth of residential property in both segments, which is contrary to the slowdown of the overall property market. This will expand the customer base from property projects, which have increased by more than 10 per cent since the start of this year.

Property projects contribute 25 per cent of Chic Republic’s total revenue while the remaining 75 per cent is from individual customers.

Next year, the company targets revenue of Bt1.2 billion.

He said the competition this quarter would be tough.

He added that in the short term the company would focus on defending its share of the prepaid cellular-service market.

In the second quarter, DTAC voice-service usage declined, while data usage increased to 60 per cent of the market from 58 per cent in the previous quarter.

DTAC currently has more than 3.5 million subscribers to its fourth-generation service, increasing from 2.9 million in the first quarter, and aims to have 6 million subscribers by the end of the year.

DTAC recently increased its bandwidth on the 1,800-megahertz spectrum for 4G service to 20MHz for Bangkok and vicinity, up from 15MHz previously. It now completely covers the remaining provinces nationwide with 15MHz of 4G-1,800MHz. Besides its 1,800MHz bandwidth, DTAC uses 5MHz of a 15MHz band on the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum to offer 4G wireless service.

DTAC posted a sharp drop in net profit in the second quarter to Bt141 million, declining 90 per cent year on year, due to higher depreciation and amortisation, lower EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) and a one-time restructuring cost of Bt394 million.

Charamporn Jotikasthira, president of THAI, said yesterday that either Seattle or San Francisco would be returned to its direct-flight network by next year.

One of these two cities will help the airline reclaim market share from long-haul routes. They are better situated for connecting flights than cities further south such as Los Angeles.

The resumption of service to the United States follows the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s lifting of the ban on Thai airlines for safety problems.

However, THAI may wait until Thailand’s Civil Aviation Department has been upgraded from Category 2 to Category 1 on the US Federal Aviation Administration’s list for the same problems.

The airline said it would likely propose the plan to US authorities by itself as it confident of complying with US safety standards.

The flag carrier plans to add more destinations in China after authorities there lifted the ban on THAI over safety reasons, after the ICAO’s claims in February of last year that Thailand’s aviation practices did not meet international standards.

THAI is also considering resuming flights to Moscow and Tehran in the high season starting in October.

THAI will receive two new Airbus A350 aircraft this year and five Airbus A350s and two Boeing 787s next year.

The airline will implement its new fare system next month and new sales system in the first quarter of next year to enhance competitiveness. The solution is expected to help increase sales especially through the online channel by more than 3 per cent.

Next month will also see a new management system that should help improve particularly connecting flights. The airline expects this new system to increase revenue by 3 per cent.

A new on-board service called “service ring” will be implemented very soon.

Charamporn and his safety-standard staff yesterday updated the media on THAI’s latest safety-compliance efforts, saying the airline had been working with Scandinavian Airlines to create a joint plan for safety and risk management.

THAI will begin using this solution in September to prevent unexpected incidents.

All of THAI’s 25,000 staff are urged to watch out for any suspicious objects or persons and report them directly to the corporate compliance department established earlier.

Its July 1-20 average load factor was 76.8 per cent, up from the same period last year.

The airline is not worried about the impending divorce of Britain and the European Union, since European tourists still travel to Thailand because it is cheaper than going to the US.

ICHC is in the process of being incorporated.

Ceylon Ambuja Cements and Lafarge Mahaweli Cement, which are direct subsidiaries of Holcim Lanka, will become indirect subsidiaries of ICHC and SCCC.

Holcim Lanka is the only clinker manufacturer operating a fully integrated cement plant with a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per year in Puttalam that has access to the only operating limestone deposit in Sri Lanka.

Holcim Lanka also operates a cement-grinding facility in Galle with a capacity of 1.0 million tonnes per year.

It manages three terminals with packing capacities in three local ports with a total import capacity of 1.6 million tonnes per year.

Holcim Lanka positions itself as the only provider of application-based products, to respond to customers’ various needs, and leads the introduction of blended cement in the industry.

Holcim Lanka’s local brands such as Sanstha enjoy very strong recall levels and are recognised in the market for their superior quality.

The brands also benefit from the local manufacturer tag, providing a competitive advantage over importing competitors.

The product range is used widely across residential, commercial and infrastructure projects. The company has long standing relationships with several blue-chip customers and has been involved in numerous landmark projects in the country.

It leverages a nationwide retail and distributor network with some 120 distributors and more than 5,000 retailers.

Over the years, it has optimised logistics and distribution operations, resulting in lower costs, increased operating safety and reduced carbon footprint.

It posted a net profit of Bt466.29 million last year, down from Bt502.45 million a year earlier.

Its revenue, however, went up from Bt4.74 billion in 2014 to Bt5.71 billion last year.

SCCC on Friday reported that its second-quarter net profit of Bt1.22 billion was down 13.3 per cent year on year and 10.5 per cent quarter on quarter.

However, excluding foreign-exchange gains, its normalised profit fell 14 per cent year on year and 10.8 per cent quarter on quarter to Bt1.21 billion.

Santichai declined to reveal the company’s name.

But he said that it had the largest market share in the energy-drink sector in Thailand.

Complaint filed

The controversy came to light after an energy-drink company filed a complaint with the Trade Competition Board, alleging the rival company was engaged in an unfair practice by forcing traders not to sell its rivals’ drinks by threatening to withhold its products from traders.

An investigation by a Trade Competition Board subcommittee found that the leading energy-drink firm had committed an unfair practice by forbidding traders from selling the products of its rivals.

It found that the behaviour limited trading opportunities.

The firm may have breached the Trade Competition Act’s articles 25 and 29, which concern market-dominance practices that reduce competition and colluding with traders to have market dominance.

If found guilty, the company faces a maximum fine of Bt6 million. The offence also carries a possible prison term of three years.

Santichai said the Internal Trade Department, the secretary-general of the investigation subcommittee, said the case would soon by filed at the Office of the Attorney-General.

If the attorney-general agrees with the board, the matter could be taken to court.

If the case were rejected, the board could bring it to court. There was a similar case in the past, but the attorney-general rejected it and nothing happened.

Meanwhile, the Internal Trade Department will ask for Cabinet approval to consider a new draft of the Trade Competition Act, which could be implemented this year.

Wiboonraksana Ruamraksa, director-general of the department, said the new draft would more efficiently punish unfair traders.

Wiboonraksana said it should be ratified within the next three months and implemented this year.

The new law would change the maximum fine for breaches of the Act from Bt6 million to 20 per cent of the annual income.