Thailand’s Siam Sport Syndicate agency has said it is keen to secure a digital-terrestrial television licence to launch the country’s first free-to-air sports news channel.
The Nation newspaper said that Siam Sport had formed a joint-venture company, I-Sports Media, with IT firm Samart Corp in a bid to secure the right to operate a commercial digital-television channel in an auction process to be held in December.
Siam Sport is said to be engaging in the strategy in an effort to win major sponsorship and advertising investment in Thailand’s fast-growing sports industry.
Pongsakdi Polanant, director and chief executive of Siam Sport Syndicate, said: “Entering the digital terrestrial TV era is a key turning point in the company's three decades in business.”
Pongsakdi said that 60 per cent of the channel’s output would be sports news while the rest of the content would comprise general entertainment programmes.