AIS TV to Drop Many Western Channels Like HBO Channels Effective March 2020

[RoiEtDale]

14 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

The service doesn't have a name. It's provided via an individual who, as I wrote, sets the box up. I had to do nothing except plug it in and turn it on.

So how do you arrange it? Sounds illegal the way you describe it but I’m not going to care about legal if we lose our channels. I’ll use whatever good black market service they offer. But we’re not losing our service one way or the other. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 2/5/2020 at 3:28 PM, Pib said:

Got a SMS today providing notification that AIS TV (officially known as AISPlay) will cancel 15 channels like all the HBO channels, Cinemax, SkyNews, FoxNews, FX, and other channels effective 13 March 2020.

 

Hey, you're getting Animal Planet instead... What are you complaining about???

 

[RoiEtDale]

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

According to AIS's most recent annual report, 94% of their core revenues came from mobile services... Another 3% came from their fixed broadband services.  It looks like their digital services revenue is smaller than their fixed broadband segment. However, they are the largest mobile operator in Thailand with a 48% of revenues market share.  They're not going to live or die over HBO et. al. on Playbox.

 

 

 

 

 

And unless they continue to offer the only service that makes AIS what they are then people are going to get their phone and internet service from another company besides AIS as I already told them I’m going to do. People will not only drop play box people will drop ALL AIS services which like I said I already threatened to do. We have two iPhones, internet, and play box that’s 4 services I have through AIS and AIS will lose ALL 4 of my accounts if they take our service the way it is now.

 

And I assure you that I will not be the only one so this will put a huge dent in ALL of their business including phones. Because if I’m going to get my cable and internet service from one company I might as well get all 3 services including phone, internet, and cable. ????

[MJKT2014]

2 hours ago, RoiEtDale said:

So AIS customers let’s work together here and fight for our great cable service.

I gave up with that years ago with True. Go for an IPTV service for a cheaper price and 1000's of channels. I have 8 different HBO channels (Signature, 2, East, Comedy, Zone etc etc) on my service at the moment and I never watch any of them, life's too short and prefer the Sky movies channels myself.

[Pib]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Re all the western/EN language channels that AIS is dropping....

 

Are they going to end up ultimately being replaced by lots of Chinese channels, I wonder???  Or just more government controlled rubbish?  

 

Another "sign of the times" indicator...

The replacement channels/products are shown in the opening post.

[Pib]

4 hours ago, arkom said:

HBO is the only good thing about AIS Play.  Hopefully they will launch HBO GO as a stand alone streaming service like Netflix so we don't have keep switching providers.  They just launched in Singapore and the Philippines so maybe could happen. 

I doubt HBO GO will come back as a standalone package.  I figure if that was going to happen they would have negotiated to keep it versus it being one of the channels/services being dropped. 

[RoiEtDale]

11 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

According to AIS's most recent annual report, 94% of their core revenues came from mobile services... Another 3% came from their fixed broadband services.  It looks like their digital services revenue is smaller than their fixed broadband segment. However, they are the largest mobile operator in Thailand with a 48% of revenues market share.  They're not going to live or die over HBO et. al. on Playbox.

 

 

 

 

 

Basically I get my phone service wherever I get my cable and internet service like most people here do. ????????. So if I’m going to drop AIS play box as most people will we’re going to be dropping AIS phone service as well, as most people will also do and switch phone internet and cable service to one company. So you better believe this will kill AIS eventually even if it takes a year or two. 

[RoiEtDale]

2 minutes ago, Pib said:

I doubt HBO GO will come back as a standalone package.  I figure if that was going to happen they would have negotiated to keep it versus it being one of the channels/services being dropped. 

They’re trying to switch to a cheaper contract probably because they don’t understand enough about western culture to know the full extent of the mistake they are truly making here. I was trying to explain to that to a supervisor earlier at AIS and I think she understood me and it actually worried her because it’s true. I was trying to explain how it might be a cheaper contract but it’s gonna cost them most of their customers especially for cable. But it’s going to effect all their business because who wants phone service with a different company as their cable and internet in this country? 

[RoiEtDale]

14 minutes ago, MJKT2014 said:

I gave up with that years ago with True. Go for an IPTV service for a cheaper price and 1000's of channels. I have 8 different HBO channels (Signature, 2, East, Comedy, Zone etc etc) on my service at the moment and I never watch any of them, life's too short and prefer the Sky movies channels myself.

I probably will be looking into that for sure because I’m not switching back to True even if they do steal the contract back from AIS. 

[Pib]

4 minutes ago, RoiEtDale said:

 So you better believe this will kill AIS eventually even if it takes a year or two. 

Naw....AIS makes the the great bulk of their business and profit from their mobile service...and they are the king of the hill for mobile in Thailand.  Having almost as much mobile market share as True and DTAC combined.

 

  

[vinny41]

1 minute ago, RoiEtDale said:

They’re trying to switch to a cheaper contract probably because they don’t understand enough about western culture to know the full extent of the mistake they are truly making here. I was trying to explain to that to a supervisor earlier at AIS and I think she understood me and it actually worried her because it’s true. I was trying to explain how it might be a cheaper contract but it’s gonna cost them most of their customers especially for cable. But it’s going to effect all their business because who wants phone service with a different company as their cable and internet in this country? 

Haven't seen anyone on here saying that they are willing to pay double the current price to keep HBO and the other channels

I think most people use the service provider that gives them the best signal quality and voice quality for the area that they live in and use a seperate service provider for their internet service Don't put all your eggs in one basket comes to mind

[RoiEtDale]

I made it very clear to AIS as I will everyday when I call that if I have to drop AIS Playbox because of this then I’m also dropping both phone numbers we have with AIS and internet service. I told them I will discontinue all AIS services if this happens and that I will encourage other customers to do exactly the same. I also told them that they can forget about all of my AIS bills next month as well if they do this. I threatened to totally cut off AIS as in total boycott. 

[RoiEtDale]

I made it very clear to AIS as I will everyday when I call that if I have to drop AIS Playbox because of this then I’m also dropping both phone numbers we have with AIS and internet service. I told them I will discontinue all AIS services if this happens and that I will encourage other customers to do exactly the same. I also told them that they can forget about all of my AIS bills next month as well if they do this. I threatened to totally cut off AIS as in total boycott. 

[RoiEtDale]

6 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

Haven't seen anyone on here saying that they are willing to pay double the current price to keep HBO and the other channels

I think most people use the service provider that gives them the best signal quality and voice quality for the area that they live in and use a seperate service provider for their internet service Don't put all your eggs in one basket comes to mind

It has nothing to do with price it’s simply about keeping the current service as is. 

[RoiEtDale]

10 minutes ago, Pib said:

Naw....AIS makes the the great bulk of their business and profit from their mobile service...and they are the king of the hill for mobile in Thailand.  Having almost as much mobile market share as True and DTAC combined.

 

  

I know and losing this contract will kill that to. Who wants to get their phone internet and cable from all different companies in this country? Maybe in the US or Europe but people don’t like to do that here because it’s extremely inconvenient to use multiple companies for phone internet and cable in Thailand. True has not even fully recovered from it and they were a big company before the HBO contract but not AIS this contract made them what they are today before the contract AIS was just another company and if they lose that contract they will barely be as good as DTAC. 

[vinny41]

1 minute ago, RoiEtDale said:

It has nothing to do with price it’s simply about keeping the current service as is. 

Either HBO wants to drop the service and it seems they do as they are bring out HBO Max later this year or HBO wants to increase the price of the current service and AIS don't want to pay the increase more than likely due to lack of useage.

IF HBO want to drop the service there is nothing AIS can do and if AIS don't want to pay more for the same content there is nothing you can do about it except move to a different service provider

Of course you could see if AIS will keep the HBO channels if you are willing to pay double that message will be passed up through their chain of commands

 

 

[RoiEtDale]

16 minutes ago, Pib said:

Naw....AIS makes the the great bulk of their business and profit from their mobile service...and they are the king of the hill for mobile in Thailand.  Having almost as much mobile market share as True and DTAC combined.

 

  

If it was not for the HBO contract True would still be way ahead of AIS like they used to be back when True still had the contract for themselves. Then everyone switched to AIS BECAUSE they got the contract after True lost it lol. This contract is the only reason why AIS is up there with the big boys now, without it well I think it’s obvious. Obviously they didn’t get big by making good SIM cards ????. 

[RoiEtDale]

8 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

Either HBO wants to drop the service and it seems they do as they are bring out HBO Max later this year or HBO wants to increase the price of the current service and AIS don't want to pay the increase more than likely due to lack of useage.

IF HBO want to drop the service there is nothing AIS can do and if AIS don't want to pay more for the same content there is nothing you can do about it except move to a different service provider

Of course you could see if AIS will keep the HBO channels if you are willing to pay double that message will be passed up through their chain of commands

 

 

Yeah and HBO probably knows how important the contract is to AIS they probably just figure if AIS won’t renew it True would be happy to have it back so True can get all their business back again. It’s a corporate power play like before with True in 2017. 

Edited February 6, 2020 by RoiEtDale

[vinny41]

1 minute ago, RoiEtDale said:

Yeah and HBO probably knows how important the contract is to AIS they probably just figure if AIS won’t renew it True would be happy to have it back so True can get all their business back again. 

And we can see that the HBO contract is not important to AIS hence the removal

Most Thai's I know they use the same Service provider that their family and friends use as they get free calls to numbers on the same network as for internet service provider that might be a different service provider 

[Pib]

1 minute ago, RoiEtDale said:

I know and losing this contract will kill that to. Who wants to get their phone internet and cable from all different companies in this country? Maybe in the US or Europe but people don’t like to do that here because it’s extremely inconvenient to use multiple companies for phone internet and cable in Thailand. True has not even fully recovered from it and they were a big company before the HBO contract but not AIS this contract made them what they are today before the contract AIS was just another company and if they lose that contract they will barely be as good as DTAC. 

I just gotta say your belief that AIS dropping a bunch of western channels from their TV service is going to be crippling or mortal wound (or even very hurtful) to the company doesn't hold water at least in my book.  The western population in Thailand and the number of Thais that understand any significant amount of English is small (and maybe getting smaller based on periodic education reports & surveys).   And since the great majority of the channels being dropped did not have a Thai language sound track made the channels un-interesting to Thais.  Kinda like me (who is only fluent in English) watching a Thai or Chinese language TV channel.  Throw in all the free stuff you can find on the internet now days and HBO-type services wanting higher contract pricing and it just makes a bad mixture to make a profit from.

 

Now I wish AIS was not dropping the channels also, but at the same time I understand "This Is Thailand."

[RoiEtDale]

2 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

And we can see that the HBO contract is not important to AIS hence the removal

Most Thai's I know they use the same Service provider that their family and friends use as they get free calls to numbers on the same network as for internet service provider that might be a different service provider 

Right that’s why AIS stole the contract from True back in 2016 then because it’s “not important”? Really ????. 

[Pib]

1 minute ago, RoiEtDale said:

Right that’s why AIS stole the contract from True back in 2016 then because it’s “not important”? Really ????. 

4 years ago is ancient history in today's multimedia business.  What was HOT last year can be cold as ice cream this year.

[RoiEtDale]

1 minute ago, Pib said:

I just gotta say your belief that AIS dropping a bunch of western channels from their TV service is going to be crippling or mortal wound (or even very hurtful) to the company doesn't hold water at least in my book.  The western population in Thailand and the number of Thais that understand any significant amount of English is small (and maybe getting smaller based on periodic education reports & surveys).   And since the great majority of the channels being dropped did not have a Thai language sound track made the channels un-interesting to Thais.  Kinda like me (who is only fluent in English) watching a Thai or Chinese language TV channel.  Throw in all the free stuff you can find on the internet now days and HBO-type services wanting higher contract pricing and it just makes a bad mixture to make a profit from.

 

Now I wish AIS was not dropping the channels also, but at the same time I understand "This Is Thailand."

That’s literally the only marketing tool AIS has is their playbox with western channels. That’s why they were able to catch up with and by pass True but apparently that’s gonna be short lived. 

[RoiEtDale]

Just now, Pib said:

4 years ago is ancient history in today's multimedia business.  What was HOT last year can be cold as ice cream this year.

Yeah and obviously HBO and the other channels ain’t melting anytime soon. 

[Pib]

Just now, RoiEtDale said:

Yeah and obviously HBO and the other channels ain’t melting anytime soon. 

Apparently they are in Thailand if AIS or True or (you fill in this blank) stop offering their channels.

[RoiEtDale]

4 minutes ago, Pib said:

Apparently they are in Thailand if AIS or True or (you fill in this blank) stop offering their channels.

Coincidence I just read this on the phone with True literally at the same time with a supervisor who says they’re getting it back. I like the way AIS does it better they offer more channels than True ever did like FX and Fox News. They don’t know the date yet but apparently True is getting it back according to Di the supervisor I’m talking to literally right now on the phone. 

Edited February 6, 2020 by RoiEtDale

[vinny41]

9 minutes ago, RoiEtDale said:

Right that’s why AIS stole the contract from True back in 2016 then because it’s “not important”? Really ????. 

True dropped HBO as they weren't willing to pay the price increase demand by HBO

[RoiEtDale]

2 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

True dropped HBO as they weren't willing to pay the price increase demand by HBO

Right. So get what I mean by corporate power play now? Pretty obvious. 

[RoiEtDale]

HBO knows they may or may not get the extra money they want. 

[RoiEtDale]

Business 101 guys. 

Edited February 6, 2020 by RoiEtDale