Ridkorn Tessalee, President of Strategic Project Management Unit at Jasmine International Public Company Limited (SET: JAS), revealed that, due to strong positive reception of the World Cup and increasingly stringent measures to clamp down on illegal streaming websites, the company is confident it will achieve its target of 2 million subscribers by the end of this year. The subscription and broadcast will come through Monomax, a channel of Mono Next Public Company Limited (SET: MONO) and a subsidiary of JAS. Currently, MONO has around 1.6 million subscribers.
The company also has plans to continuously import sports broadcasting rights from around the world for Thai sports fans. The main viewer base remains sports fans, particularly those following the English Premier League (EPL), World Cup, and other popular sports such as volleyball. In the second half of the year, JAS is negotiating additional content rights for various sports as part of its strategy to diversify programming and continuously provide engaging matches and tournaments for viewers.
Currently, efforts by the Royal Thai Police and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) to crack down on illegal websites streaming major football events—such as the EPL and other top leagues worldwide, as well as the World Cup—have had a significant impact on the sports and media industries. Losses from the previous Premier League season amounted to no less than THB 100 million.
Some companies have also ramped up their World Cup readiness. Both copyright holders’ technical teams and police have strengthened their safeguards, establishing round-the-clock monitoring teams to detect and respond immediately to signal piracy, especially just before and during live broadcasts. Financial trails are also being tracked to apprehend major financiers behind these operations.
Nanthaphan Sangchai, Assistant Station Director of MonoMax Sports TV, Mono Next Public Company Limited, confirmed the company’s full readiness to broadcast the World Cup, anticipating a surge in viewership. MonoMax has significantly upgraded both front-end and back-end systems to handle heavy traffic and has established technical teams for round-the-clock, real-time monitoring of all matches—major and minor—to ensure immediate resolution of any technical issues.
On the issue of copyright violations and illegal streaming of international football and online gambling advertisements, Nanthaphan admits that, while encryption systems robustly protect back-end operations, pirate sites constantly seek new technologies and methods to breach these defenses. MonoMax continues to cooperate closely with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) to investigate and eliminate illegal websites.
Police General Kittharath Punpetch, Commissioner General of the Royal Thai Police, disclosed that the CIB launched “Operation VAR” to dismantle illegal international football streaming websites and online gambling ads, in close cooperation with JAS and MONO. The investigation targets websites illegally broadcasting major football leagues—including the English Premier League and the World Cup—as part of official national police policy.
