A glittery stage, wall-to-wall celebrity song and dance, and an effort at rebranding its subscription TV platform failed to spare True Corporation’s pay-TV segment from a grim 2025. The big question facing the company now? Will the new content leadership structure put in place from January 2026 make a difference?  

As we said in our “short announcement with big implications” note at the time,  Birathon Kasemsri Na Ayudhaya’s appointment as chief content and media officer was designed to unify True Corp’s entire content empire, which means everything from TrueVisions and TrueID to online and digital/media tech. 

The appointment signals a push to bring True’s long-siloed fiefdoms under one roof – no small task in a politically complex corporate structure. Kasemsri reports directly to the board, with a line to group CEO Sigve Brekke, a veteran telco exec who assumed the role in May 2025.

Meanwhile, back to the True story from the latest earnings report... the group’s pay-TV revenue fell 9.1% year on year to a little over THB6 billion/US$172 million, dragged down by weaker subscription income and the loss of English Premier League (EPL) rights from May 2025. 

Pay-TV subscriber numbers slid 14.3% to just under 1.1 million, while monthly ARPU dipped to THB283/US$8. Pay-TV ARPU for the fourth quarter of 2025 declined 18.6% year-on-year. 

Digital provided something of a ballast. Online revenue rose 2.2% to THB25.66 billion/US$733 million, supported by 3.3% subscriber growth to 3.3 million. ARPU edged up 0.9% to THB500/US$14, reflecting resilient broadband demand.

Overall service revenue excluding interconnection eased 0.7% to THB164.8 billion, or about US$4.7 billion, as digital gains failed to fully offset pay-TV contraction.

Still, the broader business stabilised. True posted fourth-quarter net profit of THB4 billion/US$114 million, marking its fourth consecutive quarter in the black, as management doubled down on a three-year transformation plan spanning customer experience, growth, AI and organisational overhaul.

The strategy – branded “big” – involves “expanding household value through smart add-ons, targeting 2.0X growth beyond connectivity by 2028”. Content brands bundled under this pillar include the rebranded TrueNOW along with rival MonoMax, True’s own streamer TrueID, YouTube Premium, Netflix, iQiyi and Viu. 

The Big move on AI is led by the “human-like conversations AI” called Mari; Mari’s transactions grew 45% from 2023 to 2025, True said.

Meanwhile, rival AIS, which has been building out its entertainment business under the AIS Play brand, says entertainment revenue was up 30% in 2025. 

AIS presents video – including its AIS Play platform – as part of a digital strategy to building “adjacencies to engage customers” across mobile, fixed broadband and enterprise non-mobile. These comprise 77% of AIS’ total revenue. The company bundles entertainment offerings with mobile (46.8 million subscribers) and broadband (5.2 million subscribers), and says these continue to drive ARPU. The all-in-one Play Ultimate (including sports/Premier League, Netflix, HBO Max, Viu, iQiyi and others) costs THB1,499/US$42.83 a month.