CTH Public Company Limited
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CTH Public Company Limited (CTH), formerly known as Cable Thai Holding Public Company Limited, was a Thai
pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
operator and Internet broadband services provider. It was founded by a large group of cable television operators as Cable Thai Holding, a holding company established for dealing and share its content. It was offering pay television channels on an analog
CATV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...
system which had a largest customer base in Thailand with over 2.5 million households before started its own pay TV business as CTH. CTH held
English Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
broadcast rights for season 2013/14 till 2015/16 in Thailand,
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and
Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
.


History


Early history

Cable Thai Holding Public Company Limited was set up in August 2009 by over 100 Thailand cable television operators with initial capital of 50 million
baht The baht (; , ; currency sign, sign: ฿; ISO 4217, code: THB) is the official currency of Thailand. It is divided into 100 ''satang'' (, ). Prior to decimalisation, the baht was divided into eight ''fueang'' (, ), each of eight ''at'' (, ). The ...
. Its mission was to provide TV program licenses, unified channel line up, marketing for member cable operators to expand their subscriber base. In February 2010, the company, headed by president Kesem Inkaew who was also president of Thailand Cable TV Association, started its CTH platform with 26 leading cable channels broadcast via ABS1 satellite for its member cable operators to redistribute to their subscribers.


Expansion

Major change to the company organization happened in April 2012, when Wichai Thongtang, a businessman and former
Thaksin Shinawatra Thaksin Shinawatra (, ; born 26 July 1949) is a Thai businessman and politician who was the 23rd prime minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006. Since 2009 he has also been a citizen of Montenegro. Thaksin founded the mobile phone operator A ...
lawyer, acquired 25% of CTH while
Thai Rath ''Thairath'' (, lit. ''Thai State'') is a daily newspaper in Thai published in Bangkok and distributed nationwide. The paper is a broadsheet published with two sections. The first section is devoted to news. Although the news section is best kn ...
newspaper family, headed by Vachara Vacharapol, acquired another 25% of the company. CTH also looked for another partner for 20% stake while the remaining 30% was still held by cable operators. The company capital was also raised to 1 billion baht. Wichai Thongtang became the company chairman. In August 2012,
TrueVisions True Visions Group Co., Ltd. is the largest provider of a cable analog television (CAtv) and digital satellite television (DStv) in Thailand. TrueVisions is a subsidiary of the business division of True Corporation. Prior to February 2007, ...
announced partnership with CTH to allow CTH access to nine channels produced by TrueVisions. In November 2012, CTH won the broadcast right to English Premier League from 2013–14 to 2015–16 seasons with the highest price in Asia and the second highest in the world valued $320 million. The service started broadcast via cable-TV providers and on satellite via
Vinasat-2 Vinasat-2 (stylized all uppercase) is the second Vietnamese satellite to be placed in orbit. It was launched at 22:13 UTC on May 15, 2012 (5:13am on May 16 in the Vietnam time zone) at the European Spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana in South Am ...
in mid-August 2013, just weeks before English Premier League started its new season. In September 2013, CTH filed a lawsuit against
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...
and its local company, Apple South Asia (Thailand), accusing of violating intellectual property rights for commercial purposes and counterfeiting or altering a registered trademark for ฿100 million after they allow an app call "Sports Channel" that allow the user to watch EPL live broadcasts to be sold on Apple's
App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...
. In January 2014, CTH collaborated with PSI Holdings to offer English Premier League packages in lower price aiming to expand the subscribers. CTH also acquired the broadcast rights to
WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...
programmes in a five-year deal to broadcast on CTH Sport Spirit channel and later on dedicated CTH WWE channel. In February 2014, the company stated that it would focus more on satellite-TV operators to expand its subscriber base and by June the company reduced its cable partners to about 100 operators from 170. In June 2014, CTH Public Company Limited chose Inview Technology and Irdeto to introduce OTT and hybrid versions of its cable services. In July 2014, CTH announced a business partnership with
GMM Grammy GMM Grammy Public Company Limited ( or stylized as G"MM' Grammy) is the largest media conglomerate entertainment company in Thailand. Top Grammy artists include Bird Thongchai, Silly Fools, Loso, Tai Orathai, Bie Sukrit, Tata Young, Mos Pa ...
to acquire its pay-TV subsidiary, GMM B who is operating pay-TV business branded Z Pay-TV, including its channels and content such as
UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...
in exchange of 10% stake of CTH.


Downfall

In November 2015, CTH began to revoke its service via over 170 local cable service providers after they turned the focus into satellite TV after the merger of GMM B. In the same month, they lost Premier League bid for the next three seasons to
beIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a Qatari multinational network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group beIN. The network has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its ...
with a lower price than theirs from the last three years. In late January 2016, CTH cancelled their Z Pay-TV packages provided for GMM Z customer following by the cancellation of its channels on PSI and RS Sunbox packages in February 2016. On 1 August 2016, CTH ceased its KU-band broadcast via
Thaicom Thaicom Public Company Limited is a Thai satellite operator and provider of satellite and telecommunication services since 1991. The company operates a fleet of four satellites covering Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Thaicom is a subsidiary of Into ...
satellite after they laid off its around 100 employees and announced to cease all of their broadcasting service on 1 September 2016 after its rival
TrueVisions True Visions Group Co., Ltd. is the largest provider of a cable analog television (CAtv) and digital satellite television (DStv) in Thailand. TrueVisions is a subsidiary of the business division of True Corporation. Prior to February 2007, ...
acquired sub-licensing rights to broadcast Premier League from beIN Sport until 2019. CTH said it can no longer withstand the impact of the economic slowdown. It was reported the company has a losses of almost 20 billion baht.


Controversy

WWE file a lawsuit against CTH in August 2015 after they failed to pay the license fee since March 2014 and being warned that the company was in breach of agreement. WWE was awarded $23.8 million by the federal court. CTH stopped its broadcast of WWE contents on 7 September 2015. On 14 December 2016, Fox Networks Group Asia has filed legal actions against
Bangkok Bank Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited (, Royal Thai General System of Transcription, RTGS: Thanakhan Krung Thep) is one of the largest commercial banks in Thailand. Its branch network includes over 800 branches as of May 2024, within Thailand, wit ...
as a guarantor for distribution fees of their contract with CTH and GMM Grammy for $71 million.


Channels


Channels produced by CTH


Sports

* Stadium 1 * Stadium 2 * Stadium 3 * Stadium 4 * Stadium 5 * Stadium 6 * Stadium X


Channels produced by GMM B


Sports

* GMM Football Extra * GMM Football Plus * GMM Football Euro * GMM Club Channel * GMM Sport Extreme * GMM Sport Plus


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Internet Television Telecommunications companies established in 2009 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2018 Mass media companies established in 2009 Mass media companies disestablished in 2018 Thai companies established in 2009 Mass media companies of Thailand Defunct companies of Thailand Prawet district