Pay-TV network TrueVisions – struggling to maintain pay revenues in a market where most homes watch multichannel TV via free satellite – is hoping to offset Arpu decline with new medium-priced packs aimed at families, plus more HD channels and value-added services for its premium tiers.

An attractive mid-tier is core to TrueVisions’ new strategy, enhancing the platform’s premium pitch to advertisers while giving more reason for subs to upgrade from its standard packs, which have become more popular in recent years.

The center of gravity in Thailand’s TV industry is shifting away from paid revenues, with free satellite and now digital terrestrial TV (DTT) channels providing wider choice as well as clearer reception, building reach and attracting ad spend.

TrueVisions’ owner, telco True, has been pursuing this growth too, with its own free offerings, which now service 1.5 million households, as well as two DTT channels, a youth-oriented variety offering called True4U and a news channel, TNN 24.

The company is targeting an exponential boost in ad revenue across its free and pay channels over the next three years.

Subscription revenue meanwhile has been falling at TrueVisions, denting profit, largely due to churn in its most expensive tiers. Premium subs are expected to number 300,000 by the end of 2014, down from 343,000 a year earlier and 393,000 in June 2013.

Arpu has tumbled as a result, falling to Bt694 (US$21) for the first nine months of 2014 from Bt872 a year earlier.

This article also appears in the Q4 2014 edition of Media Business Asia magazine.