Thai media, broadcasting firms make inroads into Myanmar
AMID intense competition in Myanmar's emerging broadcasting and entertainment industry, leading media companies are seeking partners from Thailand in order to improve the quality of their product content and services to cash in on the rapidly growing mar
The latest event saw Myanmar fans of Disney characters enjoy the Disney Live! entertainment show in Yangon, organised by Forever BEC-Tero Co, a joint venture between Thailand’s leading entertainment firm BEC-Tero and the local heavyweight Forever Group. The return of Disney characters to Myanmar is, however, not the first event as the joint venture also organised the Miss Myanmar World 2014.
Earlier Bangkok-based event-management company Index Creative Village forged a five-year partnership with a Myanmar-based travel and hospitality firm to create a cultural show that it expects will attract high-end tourists and capitalise on the upcoming Myanmar National Tourism Year in 2015. The government expects 5 million visitors next year, in line with the campaign.
The show will be held at the Bagan Golden Palace in Myanmar. “The inaugural show, ‘Dandaree’, will be ready to welcome the first tour group on November 1.”
After tourist arrivals reached a record 2 million last year, the Myanmar government set the ambitious target of 5 million visitors next year in line with its National Tourism Year campaign.
“Through this promotion plan, the company agreed with Bagan Myanmar, one of the leading travel and hotel operators in Myanmar, to enter a strategic partnership to create a contemporary cultural show at Bagan Golden Palace,” Index Creative Village co-chief executive Kriangkrai Kanjanapokin said yesterday.
Kriangkrai said the show would feature the beauty of Myanmar’s culture, its traditional lifestyle and history. It will be performed by more than 100 well-trained artists, with Index Creative Village providing lighting and sound.
The Thai firm plans to invest Bt60 million on light and sound equipment, training local artists and other preparation expenses.
The presentation will be staged only in winter – November to March – with about 150 shows. The venue will have seating capacity for 464 people (394 standard and 70 premium seats). A ticket will cost Bt1,600 for a standard seat and Bt1,900 for a premium one.
The company expects to break even within three years, with an annual income of Bt75 million.
Last month, Shwe Than Lwin Media, Myanmar’s leading operator of free-to-air and subscription-based TV services, also announced a 70:30 joint venture with Thai company Tee Entertainment to produce TV programmes, organise events and sell sponsorship packages for the English Premier League’s current soccer season.
Shwe Than Lwin Media operates Shwe FM, a nationwide radio station, three free-to-air TV channels – Myanmar National TV (MNTV), Myanmar International TV (MITV) and Channel 9 – and SkyNet, a subscriber-based satellite TV service.
Thein Than Oo, executive general manager for content at Shwe Than Lwin Media, said at the press conference in Bangkok that Myanmar was considered a land of opportunity by foreign businesses, and media and broadcasting firms were no exception.
“In recent years, many Thai media and entertainment companies came to our country either for business partnerships or expansion, while a Myanmar media company like us, just in the early stages, is also looking for the right partners to help upgrade and develop the quality of content to lure local audiences,” he said.
The Yangon-based media company and Bangkok-based Tee Entertainment established Tee Entertainment Myanmar with registered capital of Bt10 million.
Under the JV, Somchai Cheewasutthanon, chief executive officer of Tee Entertainment, said his company would be a strategic partner producing three TV programmes targeting music lovers, teenagers and sports fans for SkyNet and rebroadcast those programmes on MNTV and Channel 9.
Tee Entertainment Myanmar has also been appointed as an authorised partner to sell EPL sponsorship packages for SkyNet for the current season. The company aims to secure one main sponsor with a US$2-million (Bt64.5-million) package, and six co-sponsors paying $1 million per package. The company will also conduct EPL-related marketing events in Myanmar to promote clients’ brands as well as raise public awareness about the English Premier League.
Somchai said the business in Myanmar should generate at least Bt50 million for the Bangkok office in the first year of operation of its entertainment business while total income next year should surge to Bt500 million, from Bt150 million at the end of this year.
“SkyNet was the country’s first TV broadcaster [in Myanmar] to win audio-visual broadcasting rights to the English Premier League from the Football Association in the UK because we wanted to open the chance of watching 380 live soccer matches to Myanmar audiences,” Thein Than Oo said.
Under the management of Shwe Than Lwin Media, the company reaches about 10 million viewers in the country.
As for BEC-Tero Co, its joint venture with Forever Group now produces 14 TV programmes, aired on two local TV channels. The programmes include “Myanmar’s Got Talent”, the franchise of the internationally known reality show. The company has also branched out and set up “My Asia Ticket”, a ticket sales agent for entertainment and cultural shows in Myanmar.
In addition, Nation Multimedia Group has also signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Myanmar’s Eleven Media Group to launch a wide range of English-language publications in the near future.
