I recently learned about the lakorn recession that's been happening in thailand and I was wondering what started and how it is affecting production. Also, sorry for the bombardment of questions but why did ch3 mass produced series to never be released or to be released comically later in like a decade? I typically stay in the bl/gl area, but I have been trying to watch some het lakorns.
First of all, I think it's important for me to note that it's not just CH3 but also its rival CH7 has also been going through the same issues of having shelved projects that get pickled in the basement for 3-4 years before going on air so it's hard for almost everyone in the industry but these two lakorn channels are facing the toughest struggles.
Before I ramble on about the many reasons contributing to dramas getting pickled, I should also first note the general working process of how CH3 prime-time post-news weekday dramas are produced and go on air. Here is the most simplified version of the usual working process I've picked up over the last two years listening to interviews with TV lakorn producers on the Thai Drama Crisis (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) in general.
Long-time affiliated but independent production houses (Tanadlakorn, Broadcast Thai, Maker Y, Maker J, Maker Y, Doo Ent, TVScene, Good Feeling, MasterOne, Cholumpi, Rak Lakorn...) have project/series ideas -> pitches them to CH3 executives -> CH3 thinks it's great, sees that it has the budget for it and approves it -> the production house handles everything from pre-production to filming -> after filming wraps, CH3 shops the series around town and finds clients willing to buy advertisement slots between the ad breaks of their primetime or evening drama [aka AD REVENUE] -> in consideration with other factors (the "popularity and/or lack thereof" the lead actors at the time, the sensitivity of the matters in their filmed series [if it's outdated or not], the quality of the final end result work, expectations of ratings), CH3 execs decide whether to air or not air a show that is in post-production.
While 'shelving' and having a huge backlog of shows in post-production dungeon is a direct result of CH3 choosing what to air or not to air, what to rerun instead of airing a new show, the best explanation to CH3's decision of rerunning and piling up their catalogue in that specific 2020-2024 period is this Pantip comment from November 2025.
Dramas that have been produced but not yet aired are not yet considered profitable or loss-making. They are counted as intangible assets that may generate profit in the future [re: potential sale value]. Therefore, if a channel fails to meet its advertising or app sales targets—i.e., sells below production costs—and then airs the show, those [production] costs risk being removed from assets and recorded as a loss in the accounting books. While it's true the channel may have already spent on production, those costs aren't accounted for in accounting until the show airs. In accounting, those costs remain intangible assets; it just affects cash flow because the capital is tied up.
If you look closely at Channel 3's financial statements, you'll see why they don't produce new dramas: their intangible assets exceed 2 billion baht (Q2 financial statement). This includes dramas and programs that have been filmed but not yet aired. To avoid a loss in the financial statements, Channel 3 needs to sell projects at a price higher than their cost per show, or at least break even.
This explains why they sometimes rerun old dramas—because reruns have no cost since they've already aired and the costs have already been factored in.
Of course then, other questions that may arose are Why did CH3 executives approve so many dramas in the first place for production if they were just gonna shelve them whenever they feel that the shelved lakorn won't make enough in sales to cover what the cost to make it? Did CH3 approve dramas just to appease their close friend and long-time affiliated producers? Do CH3 not do quality control at all that the end result is so bad?
Long time affiliate, director/producer Paajaew Yuthana Lorphanpaibul (The Miracle of Teddy Bear, In Love Forever) has dispelled and pushed back on these allegations a few times saying that CH3 approve drama productions based on the strength of their proposed pitches/stories, not to favor any of their closely affiliated producers/production companies. And CH3 does control production to a certain extent but some finished dramas just ultimately failed to meet the standards or attract enough advertiser interest, so they are shelved first despite the channel having already covered the full production cost.
But if we go back to the basic question of why is there a massive decline in advertising revenues/TV ratings, then it often boils down to often cited reasons like changes in viewing habits (watch live -> binge watch, playback on demand), changes in reorganisation of drama time slots, rise of streaming platforms, fierce competition with Western, Korean, Chinese dramas, 'no one watches Thai dramas anymore', lakorn scripts are 'outdated' and 'cliche'... But at the same time this is a common phenomenon face by most TV industry in the SEA region, not limited to Thailand, in the past decade so putting all the blame on these external factors doesn't actually help in directly addressing why CH3 has so many stocked dramas, even though they are the major driving factors of this lakorn recession, causing all the free-to-air TV networks like CH3, CH7 to cut down both on the number and the length of their non BL/GL dramas or hetero lakorns with their logic being somewhat along the lines of 'why invest and create new shows when we can just rerun our old dramas for the same minimal revenue generated from ads, there is no assurance that our work's sale value will cover the production cost'?
Another question people may have (or at least I once had) is how does CH3 determine what goes on first, what goes on later, what to rerun. After observing their patterns closely the past 2-3 years or so, I would say that CH3 follows trends and hype/buzz closely and that largely factors in their decision-making process.
whoever CH3 is "hot" at the time, either from their past works or their personal life, they prioritize reruning/airing the filmed dramas with them first (this could be a supply/demand thing, there is still buzz from their last drama, 'new' dramas will capitalize upon the ongoing buzz)
In 2022, A Tale of Ylang Ylang starring Nine and Baifern first aired in Jan-Mar. In late November of the same year, Nine confirmed that he's pursuing/dating Baifern -> CH3 decides to rerun A Tale of Ylang Ylang in December even though it hasn't even been a year since it's initial release 🙃
In 2025, 7 out of 9 new primetime dramas had leads/second leads that were a part of their hit franchise Juthathep/Dhevaprom Franchise that went on-air the previous year (Stepmother with PeakOom, Until The Sun Meets The Star with Mint, My (Im) Perfect Family with PeakPP, Game of Succession with Gina, My Sassy Wedding with JuniorBam, A Bitter Honeymoon with Peterpan and to an extent Only You with LingOrm but that's more of a response to the success of their previous GL series The Secret Of Us)
whoever got 'scandals' or if they're no longer contracted CH3 actors, they end up at the lower list of prioritization to go on-air
In September 2022, Krating was investigated for alleged involvement in the massive ฿200 billion Forex-3D Ponzi scheme. He spent the next 4 years or so trying to clear his allegations and getting back in the public's good side while still acting of course. The result of this has been that visible 4 year gap between Retribution (2022) and Wrong Side of the Rainbow and The Scammer Games (both which wrapped filming in 2023 and is only going on-air in 2026).
CH3 also likes looking at their friendly competitor One31's airing schedules closely and follow suit =))))))))) Of course, Krating and Nine did not renew with CH3 in 2025 so Ch3 has less incentives to air their dramas (especially since they still have stocked dramas starring their other contracted actors they can put out first). So one really has to question CH3's decision to put Krating and Nine on their screen after making them disappear for the entirety of 2024 and 2025 around the same time One31 air their first ever dramas with these two newly freelance/former CH3 actors.
- The Last Duel (starring Nine on One31): Mar 16, 2026 - Apr 21, 2026 (Mon-Tue)
- Love's Shattered Reflections (starring Nine on CH3): Apr 15, 2026 - Jun 17, 2026 (Wed-Thu)
- Wrong Side of the Rainbow (starring Krating on CH3): Mar 31, 2026 - Jun 2, 2026 (Mon-Tue)
- The Bangkok Red Opera (starring Krating on One31): Apr 22, 2026 - Jun 18, 2026 (Wed-Thu)
This led to that one week in April (20-23) where however Thai lakorn fans press their remote they would be seeing either Krating or Nine on their small screen (given that they don't switch to CH7 of course).
Another thing is the "downgrade" of dramas that are initially positioned as prime-time post-news dramas (lakorn lang khao) with airing time of 8:30 PM to evening dramas (lakorn yen) with airing time of 7:00 PM, weekday timeslots (mon, tue, wed, thu) to weekend timeslots (fri, sat, sun). This could be another entire post on the segregration of these two type of lakorns because it's hard to water them down to an 'evening lakorns are easier plot, more cliche lower budget & production values vs primetime lakorns are more complex plot, higher budget & production values' dichotomy. Pinging friend @virtualtadpole who may be able to give a better explanation of this than I do at the moment.
Off the top of my head, I think of Pin Anong which starred Toey Pongsakorn (who had consistently been ML in primetime weekday timeslots) and Preem Ranida (who had consistently been FL in primetime weekend timeslots) and is a remake of the massively popular CH7 lakorn of the same time starring WeirMin. Every pre-production detail would give your average chronic lakorn audience the impression that it's positioned as a primetime drama. It ended up airing in a 7PM Mon-Friday evening lakorn timeslot (3 years after it wrapped filming and all of its leads (Toey, Preem, Yoghurt, Bright) are no longer CH3 affiliates).
And if you ask why CH3 would still release shows a decade (Black Coral) or half a decade later (A Bitter Honeymoon) despite at first shelving them for reasons of 'it's outdated', 'not up to standards', 'not being able to sell them'. I think the simple answer is that there is somewhat of a buzz about them not airing -> lakorn fans are curious and constantly asking about them -> CH3 has already found a way to cover their losses in their financial reports (Profits from Idol Activities/Merchandise from their GL pairings balancing out Losses from Operating (Production) Costs).
Moreover A Bitter Honeymoon (filmed in 2020, released in late 2025) was released to smashing ratings, becoming the 3rd highest in overall average ratings (3.466) as well as 3rd highest for one episode (4.3), reinforcing the idea that even shelved remakes of toxic, grooming, abusive romance stories can succeed in selling ads and make profits (though adopting this view would be very skewed because in this day and age, ratings (and by proxy, profits from ad sales) should not be the sole metric to the success of a series).
The commercial success of A Bitter Honeymoon has often been propped up as a point among CH3 fans in calling for the freeing of Black Coral from the post-production limo, which they successfully did and it's premiering on June 22 (almost a decade since it wrapped filming in April 2017).
I hope my long rambling hit the mark on some of the inquiries you may have about the lakorn recession. I should also note that a lot of sweeping and generalising statements made in here are purely personal observations and reflections upon interviews with TV producers and other Thai lakorn audience chiming in here and there on Pantip. I highly encourage you to search up and look into the interviews with TV producers yourself if you're interested in the 'thai drama crisis' or วิกฤต ละครไทย because it's been happening for a while and everyone is trying to speculate on what this means for the changing landscape of Thai TV.
(from RESET การเกิดใหม่ของดวงดาว, billed as an iQIYI Thailand Original, project conceptualised and produced by long time CH3 affiliated production house Broadcast Thai, bought a late night airing timeslot on CH3)
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