INTERVIEW-UPDATE 1-Thai media firm MCOT upbeat on 2010 outlook

* Sees 2010 revenue growth of over 10 pct; above estimates

* Plans ad rates hike in Q1 '10; seeks new products in 2010

* Aims to transform into regional media content provider

* Shares jump over 80 pct this yr; broader market up 64 pct

BANGKOK, Oct 20 - MCOT, Thailand's second most valuable broadcaster, expects 2010 revenue to grow more than 10 percent, above analysts' estimates, driven by improvement in advertising and the launch of new products.

The country's oldest broadcasting firm has seen advertising stabilising as the economy recovers from its first recession in 11 years, the company's newly-appointed president Tanawat Wansom told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old chief, a former Walt Disney Co Buena Vista Pictures executive, aims to transform the former state-owned entity into a Southeast Asian media-content provider.

That could pit the Thai company against regional media heavyweights including Singapore's MediaCorp, which produces Channel News Asia, or the Philippines' GMA Network.

MCOT, 65.8 percent-owned by the Finance Ministry, runs the third-most popular local TV channel in Thailand after non-listed, army-owned Channel 7 and BEC World's Channel 3.

"We project at least a 10 percent growth next year in terms of top-line with TV advertising spending starting to show some signs of life over recent months," Tanawat said in an interview.

"This year's sale growth will also reach above our 4.4 billion baht ($132 million) target," he said.

Tanawat's estimate was above the 4.8 billion baht ($144 million) forecast by 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, who predict 2010 revenue to rise 8.5 percent. The company's revenue is estimated at 4.42 billion baht for 2009.

"We've seen a pretty depressed ads market in the first half with advertisers skittish and confidence falling," he said, adding that ad spending fell about 7 percent from a year earlier.

MCOT has a market value of $475 mln and ranks behind BEC World.

Thailand's first TV broadcaster since 1955 is vulnerable to big shifts in TV advertising, which generates about 60 percent of overall revenue. But its prospects are improving as Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy pulls out of a tailspin.

Ratings tracker Nielsen Media said advertising spending at MCOT's Modernnine TV channel grew over 14 percent in July-Aug, the best rise among Thai TV stations and surpassing industry growth of 4.1 percent.

By 0505 GMT, MCOT shares rose 1.3 percent to 23.40 baht in a broader market up 0.5 percent. The stock has surged over 80 percent this year compared to a 64 percent rise in the market.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMBITIONS

Next year, MCOT plans to roll out several new projects including mobile TV, Internet Protocol TV via broadband, while developing a new technology which would bring broadcast services to cell phones.

Analysts said the company expects to earn 25-30 percent of its total sales from this new segment within the next four years.

In late 2007, MCOT cooperated with South Korea's SK Telecom Co Ltd for a trial of digital terrestrial TV broadcast under the 58-band UHF system for mobile service users and fixed service users, he said.

MCOT, which would spend about 1 billion baht in 2010, plans to raise advertising rates of some TV programmes in the first quarter of 2010, Tanawat said, adding its average advertising rate is still relatively low at 310,000 baht ($9,307) per minute.

MCOT recently signed a joint operation contract for subscription pay TV services with True Corp's cable TV business, True Visions Group, and will get 6.5 percent of True's advertising revenue each year, he said. ($1= 33.31 Baht)