🛑 World Cup... Why does Thailand have to pay almost 3 times more expensive?

🛑 World Cup... why does Thailand pay almost 3 times more?

When the "Good Hope Law" is destroying market forces... and unknowingly causing the country to be tied up.

In 2014, Thailand paid about 427 million in World Cup royalties.

In 2018, the figure moved up to about 1,000 million.

And in 2022, the figure surpassed 1,400 million.

The interesting question is,

In less than 10 years,

Why is the cost of buying Thai World Cup copyrights... so severe?

Many people think that this is typical of

* Inflation

* Higher football popularity

* Or FIFA, raise prices.

But if you look really deep,

What happened wasn't just sports.

And it's not just about the copyright business.

But it is a "classic case study" of side effects from "well-intentioned" policies.

Instead, it creates a distortion to the entire market mechanism.

📜 a major turning point... when Must Have rules turn the World Cup from a "commodity" into a "policy burden."

Back to 2012.

The NTC issued a guideline called "Must Eve."

Which requires a list of seven major sports.

Including the World Cup final.

Free TV must be broadcast.

In the corner of the people.

This sounds very nice.

Because no one wants the World Cup locked behind the paywall.

But in the corner of the business model,

This is a very important turning point.

Because before that, copyright holders can still

* Sale subscription

* Do exclusive content

* Selling set-top box

* Or monetize through its own ecosystem

An obvious example is the RS case in the 2014 World Cup.

That seeks to create a business model to extract costs back from copyright.

But when the new rules state that

"Bought and must be open for free."

The important question is

And which private would... dare to pay a billion for free?

And this is where market forces start to change immediately.

Because when business incentives disappear,

Private players also naturally began to withdraw from the auction.

⚠️ The problem is... when private people dare not play games, the country begins to enter the "Panic Buying Circuit."

After that, Thailand began to repeat the same pattern at almost every World Cup:

* No one dares bid in advance

* No private sector leads the game

* All parties wait to see the situation.

* And finally, let's speed up the negotiations near the deadline.

So it's not a "free market."

But a national panic buying.

And in the business world,

Last-minute shopping

Almost never leads to good bargaining power.

Especially when the seller knows that.

* This country has no choice.

* There is high social pressure.

* And if you don't watch the World Cup, there will be an immediate backlash.

That means the leverage of the buyer's side is almost zero.

"When you are forced to buy... the seller will have no reason at all to reduce the price to you."

And this is clearly a textbook case of weak bargaining position.

💰 When sellers started looking at Thailand... not the buyer's country, but the "large total wallet."

Another very important story is

Thailand's pay structure is gradually changing.

From the original to

* Private single investment

* And then take the business risk yourself

Become a must-have model.

* Funding

* Request for State support

* Use the Fund

* And pull a large group of capital to help down the bowl.

Looking at FIFA or global copyright agents, what they see is not a media company that has to calculate a strict ROI.

But is that country

* There is high social pressure.

* There are government agencies involved.

* And with mobilize budget to solve specific problems

What's more,

Thailand is also seen as a "Football-crazy nation."

Thailand's World Cup ratings have always been very high.

And advertiser demand is still strong.

So in the eyes of the seller,

Thailand became a "affordable" market.

And when the buyer shows a sign, "Anyway."

Prices tend to be pushed up naturally.

🌍 Many countries choose to use the "Hybrid Model," but Thailand locks itself in with policy constraints.

If looking abroad

Many countries do not always use the hardened "all-free" model.

Some use hybrid models, such as

* Live broadcast some pairs via free TV.

* Some are on subscription

* Or open to some form of monetize private platform.

The goal is to balance between

* Public access

* With market sustainability

Because in the end,

Sports copyright is a real cost business asset.

If the system does not open up the private sector to create an economic return, the burden will eventually flow back to

* Public sector

* Fund

* Or ad hoc resource mobilization.

"And that's what Thailand has been going through all these years."

🧩 bigger lesson than football... is "Regulatory Economics."

The most interesting thing about this

Probably not even a World Cup.

But it's a lesson on "policy side effects."

Because many times

A law that came out with good intentions.

May create more severe unintended consequences than thought.

In this case, the intention of wanting Thai people to see for free "leads to another result, such as

* Private people dare not invest.

* Market forces lose balance.

* The country lost bargaining power.

* And the total cost of the system is getting higher and higher.

This is a classic of regulatory distortion.

Or where regulation changes market incentives.

Until the behavior of the entire system changes.

✨ The World Cup may be the gift of the beholder... but it is becoming an expensive lesson of policymaking.

After all, this problem may not have a straightforward "culprit," because

* People want to watch for free

* States also want public access.

* Private people have to think about cost-effectiveness.

* And global vendors also serve the natural maximize value of the business.

But what this story reflects very clearly is

"When regulation does not understand market forces deeply enough... good hopes can become the long-term cost of the entire system."

And sometimes

The most expensive thing.

Probably not World Cup royalties.

It is "the price of policy... without understanding the economics of the real world."

# Two stories a day

# BusinessStrategy

# WorldCupRights

# ExecutiveMindset

# MarketDynamics

# RegulatoryEconomics

📚 Source / Reference

* NTC Office - Announcement of the key television program guidelines that can be published only on the 2012 Must Have television service, which provides seven sports extravaganzas, including the World Cup final, must be broadcast through free TV.

* World Cup royalty statistics in Thailand - 2014 (about 427 million baht, which the NTC compensates for RS), 2018 (about 1,000 million baht by private equity groups), and 2022 (over 1,400 million baht by the NTC and private equity groups).