Movies and TV have always been great ways to entertain and educate. But lots of people around the world, and here in Thailand, might not be aware that unless they’re viewing them for their personal and private use, they probably need a separate license that specifically authorizes its public performance. This is because most copyright laws around the world, including Thailand’s Copyright Act, confirm that the rental or purchase of a copyrighted motion picture or other audiovisual works does not include the right to perform that work publicly. So, what does all of that mean, and how does it all happen? This spotlight article focuses on public performance rights, and what they mean to copyright owners.
Can you start by introducing yourself and telling us what your company does?
I’m Kenny Naranirattisai and I’m one of the Founding Directors of Absolute NT Ltd, Thailand’s only authorized provider of non-theatrical exhibition for the major Hollywood studios in the Kingdom. I also own and operate Boomerang, which is a retailer for movies on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K UHD, as well a music, games, and other merchandise.
What is non-theatrical exhibition anyway? What does that even mean?
Its one of the ways film producers recoup their investments and monetize their creative properties. The right to permit or prohibit the public performance of a copyrighted work is one of the core protections extended to creators under Thailand’s Copyright Act. Whenever movies are shown outside of someone’s home, they’re being performed publicly and we facilitate that activity. Our mission is to provide an efficient means to ensure compliance with the copyright law by offering easy and affordable licenses for the benefit of both the copyright owners and the general public.
So let me make sure I understand. Let’s say I own a bar, or a restaurant, and I have a television set or a projection screen, and I want to play a DVD that I already own for my customers on a Saturday afternoon. Why do you get involved?
Because your DVD was only licensed by the studio for private showings in the home. It says as much on the back of the DVD, and during the credit scrolls at the beginning of the movie. It specifically says you can’t perform the movie publicly without the express consent of the copyright owner. The thing is, the copyright owner doesn’t have the wherewithal to do all that administration everywhere in the world themselves, so they appoint companies like ours do Kingdom. that work locally in key markets around the world.
But the studio already made its money when I bought the DVD! Sounds greedy.
Again, the DVD was manufactured and sold on the express understanding that it was only to be used in the home, unless further permission is obtained. That was the deal upon which DVDs were founded upon; they were strictly intended as “home entertainment” products. So, I’m going to presume you don’t want to intentionally break the law, especially now that I’ve told you that. The good news is, I’m a businessmen and licenses are priced in accordance with the circumstances. It’s not in our commercial interest to stop you from playing your DVD for your customers. We never want to stop people from doing what they want to do. We’d just ask a few questions and agree on a fee we both agree is fair. In your case it might be the same amount that one of your customers pays for a few beers.
By contrast, many of the events we license are large-scale public gatherings in high-pedestrian urban areas. These screenings are often for ticketed customers only and are very well advertised and attended. That’s completely different from your example of a DVD in a bar.
What if I just stream a movie from my Netflix account, or some other online platform instead?
That’s no different, really. The studios licensed those titles to Netflix and other consumer platforms for private use only, and that’s specified in the terms and conditions of your subscription license. So, if you’re using Netflix to screen movies publicly, you definitely need a public performance license.
OK, got it. It sounds like what you do for movie producers is what the MCT and TECA do for music composers and record companies, isn’t it?
Pretty much. The reason it’s done is because that’s how copyright owners make their money: by monetizing the commercial use of their works by exercising the exclusive rights extended to their works. The way it’s done is by making the process as easy on consumers as possible. We have tens of thousands of the world’s best movies available on very fair terms that are both affordable and reasonable.
So, are you a new company then providing new services?
No and yes. In the old days, before home entertainment products like VHS tapes or DVDs were made available to consumers, the studios controlled the distribution of their products simply because they owned the prints that ran through 16 and 35mm projectors. If you wanted to watch a studio’s movie when it wasn’t in a theater, you had to contact them and get permission and ask them to send you a copy. There simply wasn’t any other way for movies to be distributed, or watched.
Nowadays even VHS tapes and DVDs are disappearing from the scene, but it remains the fact that every business-to-consumer product or service is still only licensed for private (i.e., home) use, only. That’s where we come in, and those are the services we offer.
Although other companies have provided similar services in the United States and in Europe, ANT is the first and only one licensed by the major Hollywood studios to operate in Thailand. Traditionally the non-theatrical market here has been dominated by “rogue” operators who have no relationships in place with those studios and who operate illegally in that respect.
We only opened our doors for business three years ago, so in that sense we’re still a relatively new company here.
Do your licenses cover movie theaters as well?
No. We leave theatrical exhibition to the studios and their distributors who have traditionally serviced that market very well. We would never want to compete with them on that. And we also don’t license broadcasters and pay-TV operators for the same reasons. We instead operate in various secondary markets where people gather communally.
What are some of your biggest markets, then?
Well, unless it’s raining movies tend to be shown in some communal setting every day in every province throughout the Kingdom, so “outdoor cinema” is traditionally what comes to mind for most people. The problem, as I said, is that bad guys have been operating in that space for a long time already, and as a legitimate company that operates legally, we’re seen as a market disruptor! Big event operators know and recognize us and we do business with them, but only a tiny fraction of the outdoor cinema activity taking place in Thailand is legally licensed.
Other markets for us include educational establishments, child care facilities, libraries, government departments and agencies, transportation providers…just about anywhere you can think of that has at least one screen capable of being used to show movies.
We’re particularly excited about the hospitality and healthcare markets (i.e., hotels and hospitals) because we’ve been exclusively appointed as the sales distributors in Thailand for two products developed in the UK for those markets that are already servicing more than 70,000 rooms and beds worldwide.
Tell us more about that
Airtime® is the world’s premier platform B2B video on demand streaming platform designed and licensed (by content providers) specifically for in-room use for the hotels and hospitals. It offers more than 250 Hollywood blockbuster hits, including 8 out of the top 10 earning films at last year’s box office, as well as live international news and sports channels, as well as lifestyle and wellness programming.
The platform is already housed inside hospitality model television sets manufactured by Samsung, LG, Sony, and Philips among others, and requires no additional equipment or capital infrastructure investment in order to operate. Movies are available very early in their distribution cycle – the same time that they’re available on the world’s finest airlines, and in some instances while still available in cinemas – and well before they’re offered on ordinary consumer platforms, including Netflix. Titles are updated regularly and offered in more than 10 different interchangeable languages and/or subtitles; news coverage from more than ten international news channels around the world keep guests informed about what’s going on at home on a real-time basis.
United.TV® is an IPTV platform offering more than 100 different live international television channels in fourteen different languages from around the world, and has again been specifically created and licensed by the content providers to service business sectors.
These are services that can’t be stolen, and that are marketed specifically at a target demographic seeking the best quality entertainment content for their customers. We’re thrilled to have been chosen to distribute the services here to our five-star hospitality and world-leading healthcare facilities here in Thailand.
How do you go about doing what you do?
Through private contracts with film studios, distributors, and technologists Absolute NT has secured the appropriate rights to grant licenses under the relevant provisions of Thailand’s Copyright Act for various uses of their works. We typically license screenings on a title-by-title basis, though we do make packages of pre-approved titles available for certain markets. If customers don’t already have access to legal copies of the titles they want to watch, we can make them available for a modest additional materials fee.
Our in-room entertainment platforms are typically offered on a per-room, per-month basis allowing its unlimited use and enjoyment, but we can also structure movie offerings on a guest-pay basis if hotels choose to do that. The app has already been installed in television sets and needs only to be activated (from Airtime’s headquarters in the UK) in order to be enjoyed. We’re lucky that regardless of the market, we’re representing the best movies that people enjoy watching, so there’s a huge demand and appetite for what we have to offer.
Sounds easy. How’s the business doing so far?
Well, I can’t say that its easy! Anyone who’s done business in Thailand knows that it’s a vibrant and exhilarating place, but they also know that at times it can seem frustrating for various reasons. People who haven’t done business here may be unfamiliar with its unique ebb and flow and experience more frustration than exhilaration during their early stages.
But Absolute NT has a truly local perspective and we view our development of the non-theatrical market here as a long-term investment, which our licensors understand and appreciate. We’re fortunate to have their support and we value our relationships with the studio executives here and in the region.
What are the biggest challenges that your company is facing?
I would say a combination of relatively low levels of awareness amongst consumers about intellectual property rights, and relatively high levels of pirated content that unfortunately remain available to those same consumers.
We know that copyright can seem confusing at times to many people, so our job is to educate them whenever we can. And we’re optimistic that most of the people in Thailand, once they fully understand who we are, and what we do, and why we do it, will choose to do the right thing and comply with their legal obligations. And as I mentioned before, our job isn’t to scold people for what they may have done in the past; it’s to instead focus on the future by providing them with an efficient and affordable means to keep having their fun while at the same time ensuring they are compliant with their legal obligations.