Retaining EPL rights 'important' for True but it could

But he added that if TrueVisions failed to clinch the contract, it was ready to join the bid winner to broadcast the matches. True might also bid for the right to broadcast them in regional markets, not just Thailand.

Many companies over the past few weeks have announced their interest in bidding for the rights.

TrueVisions’ existing three-year broadcasting rights for the Premier League will expire in 2013, and a new round of bidding will take place in the middle of this year. TrueVisions reportedly paid Bt3 billion to win its existing rights.

In a separate matter, Suphachai said True was ready to provide more information to any state authorities to defend the legitimacy of the deals it made with CAT Telecom on setting up a third-generation cellular service.

A committee set up by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to scrutinise the partnership recently concluded that it had found five irregularities in the process of making the deals. It forwarded the conclusion for further investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Earlier Suphachai said that despite the questions over the deals’ legitimacy, True would stick with its plan to invest Bt40 billion this year on expanding the 3G network under the CAT partnership, aiming to set up 13,000 base stations for it this year.

Suphachai also recently sent an internal letter to all True staff to assure them that the conclusion of the ICT Ministry’s committee had no effect on the partnership, given that the probe focused on the process of developing the deals on CAT’s part. It had nothing to do with the legality of the deals themselves. He reaffirmed that they strictly complied with all laws and regulations. The CAT labour union yesterday reportedly circulated an open letter among staff and to ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap supporting Suphachai’s stance that the deals were made in compliance with laws and regulations.

It added that the criticism of the deals by many parties in the past few months had affected its offering of 3G service. It urged the CAT board to approve a budget of Bt7.8 billion to procure related equipment and SIM cards to enable the agency to offer prepaid 3G service.

Under the deals, CAT wholesaled its 3G bandwidth to True’s subsidiary Real Move, which provides the service under the TrueMove H brand. CAT also offers a 3G retail service on a post-paid basis under its own My brand, which now has 15,000 customers.

CAT and True signed the deals in January last year, which attracted scrutiny of many state authorities over their legality.