AIS denies channel takeover report

>> Mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service (AIS) has denied a media report that it is preparing to take over a digital TV channel.

AIS yesterday sent a letter to Manager Online, which had said earlier in the day that BEC World Plc, known as Channel 3, was seeking the help of AIS to take over one of its three digital TV channels amid burdensome costs.

Channel 3 HD, which is numbered 33 on television listings, airs the same programmes, including daily news and popular night soap opera, as its analogue equivalent.

Another two digital channels, known as Channel 3 Family and Channel 3 SD, mainly run TV series and sports events.

Manager Online reported that BEC World key executive Pravit Maleenont wanted to sell the HD version of Channel 3 to keep alive the standard definition version. The assertion was denied by AIS.

“That is not true at all,” Wilai Keangpradoo, AIS’s senior vice-president for public relations, said in the letter.

Ms Wilai asked Manager Online to publish his statement, with the report later removed from the publication’s website.

AIS is Thailand’s largest mobile operator by market share.