Bangkok--Nov 5--UBC
United Broadcasting Group Corporation Pcl. today reported a net profit of THB 706.4 million for the 9 months ended 30 September 2004. This was THB 556.4 million or 371.0% improvement from the profit posted for the same period last year of THB 150.0 million. This includes an exceptional gain raised in the 2nd quarter of the current year from a reversal of a provision for taxes of THB 309.5 million. After adjusting for the said exceptional items net profit improved year on year by THB 313.0 million or 465.1% from the net profit of THB 67.2 million to an adjusted net profit of THB 380.2 million.
The subscriber base which stood at 447,720 subscribers as of 30 September 2004 represented a 7,792 subscriber growth for the 3rd quarter and 12,905 subscribers year to date compared to a net loss of 12,090 subscribers for the same period last year.
UBC’s, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Vasili Sgourdos, stated that the groups profits improved as a result of an 8.5% growth in revenues due to improving revenue per subscriber and growing subscriber numbers with lower depreciation, and transponder lease interest with controlled increases in cost of providing services and administrative expenses. Sgourdos re-iterated concerns raised around the regulatory environment relating to pay TV asking for a level playing field for all operators and consistent law enforcement against all players in the market. “UBC’s cost structures are different to those of the other 400 operators in the Thai market purely because regulation and laws are not enforced consistently. UBC pays 6.5% of its revenues to authorities for broadcast license fees and invests over THB 2,000 million a year to pay for programming shown on its platform, while having invested over THB 12,800 million to build its platform including decoders to keep signals secure, while there are over 400 operators paying either significantly lower broadcast license fees or no license fees at all and in many cases in contravention of their licenses, while also paying very little for programming due copyright violation and not keeping signals secure with proper encryption technology. This situation has now gone on for too long and progress in dealing with this by regulatory bodies must be accelerated if the regulators are serious about protecting copyright law and the rights of legitimate businesses in Thailand.”
UBC’s, Chief Executive Officer, Sompan Charumilinda said, “we have been working hard and closely with all concerned and all parties who want to see a legitimate properly regulated pay TV industry evolve in Thailand to move towards urgent and necessary reforms as well as enforcement of the law. UBC makes significant investments to bring a world class service to Thai homes within the requirements of its concession and the law while others operate without licenses, violate the ministerial regulation prohibiting advertising on cable TV and violate other key laws such as copyright law causing untold damage to legitimate operators and Thailand as a whole. The Public Relations Department needs to move faster than it has in dealing with this problem and its actions now need to deliver concrete results and not just rhetoric. UBC’s commitment in assisting in growing the industry goes beyond words. We have extended the content that we produce ourselves in the 10 UBC channels to provincial cable operators at a minimal fee compared to the investment we make to put them together to help them survive and service the lower segment of the market with only one condition, comply with the laws of Thailand, in addition we have patiently engaged authorities such as the Public Relations Department and Mass Communication Organisation of Thailand amongst other for over 3 years on the issue of cable piracy with no significant inroads having been made to date by the regulatory agencies in reducing the amount of piracy that is going on. We ask for fair and equitable treatment and enforcement of the law not only on UBC but all operators in the country. We ask that the regulatory agencies urgently deploy programs that eliminate copyright violation by cable operators and that it considers a level playing field for all where all are subject to same regulations, same licensing conditions and commitments and that all are monitored at the same level and enforcement is consistent against all operators.”
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Certain statements in this press release that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicated future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors, that could cause the actual results, plans and objectives of UBC Group to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements (or from the past results). Although UBC Group will attempt to revise and update on occasion forward-looking statements as a result of changed predictions, UBC Group undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information or future events or circumstances or otherwise. End.