Viewers held 'hostage' in Euro telecast debate

The row between TrueVisions and GMM Z arose from a lack of industry rules and fiercer competition in the pay TV segment. Sadly, this would have gone undetected if some consumers had not been held “hostage”.
Since making an entry into the satellite TV industry a few years ago, GMM Grammy – the parent company of GMM Z, has tried hard to establish a strong foothold. It had failed until it won the rights to broadcast the Euro 2012, the quadrennial soccer tournament that has captured the attention of millions of viewers worldwide including in Thailand. This is an opportunity for the firm to grow its business. Given that GMM Z wants to focus on selling satellite TV set-top boxes to expand its viewers base, it is not surprising that it has mainly allowed only those with its set-top boxes to view the Euro 2012 tournament.
It has also allowed free-TV viewers with terrestrial TV antennas to view the live matches on the three free-TV channels – Channels 3, 5 and 9 – given it has leased airtime on these channels to air the matches and commercials during the matches under a revenue-sharing agreement.
GMM Grammy’s content provider GMM Z could be deemed as one of TrueVisions’ main competitors in terms of providing copyrighted content. Besides Euro 2012, GMM Z has won the local distribution rights to world-class soccer tournaments such as the Japanese national soccer league, J League Division 1, for five years to 2017; Germany’s Bundesliga for three seasons starting this year; and three seasons of Carling Cup matches in England starting in September. GMM Z jumped into the business last September.
TrueVisions had been in talks with GMM Z since last December to see if its subscribers will be able to view the Euro 2012 matches on free-TV channels carried on TrueVisions’ network, but they failed to reach an agreement.
A source in the negotiations earlier said GMM Z offered TrueVisions two clear options: either TrueVisions buys GMM Z boxes at a special lower price to offer to its subscribers, or TrueVisions buys the broadcasting rights from GMM Z to enable its subscribers to view the matches. TrueVisions declined to do so in the belief that any programmes to be aired on free-TV channels should be accessed by all.
GMM Z claimed they sold nearly one million set-top boxes, versus a target of 2 million this year.
Earlier, when TrueVisions did not focus on selling set-top boxes, it authorised some free-TV channels to air selected Premier League matches to which it holds the broadcasting rights in Thailand. But recently it stopped doing so after switching to focus on selling set-top boxes to expand its viewer base. Given the cries from TrueVisions customers, the company started last-minute talks with GMM Z to solve this issue, expecting it to yield a result early this week.
GMM Z chief executive officer Thana Thienachariya said that GMM Z needs time to ask for Uefa’s permission to allow TrueVisions subscribers to view the matches. Uefa is the governing body of European football.
RS chief operating officer Pornpan Techarungchaikul said that GMM Z is concerned that if it allows TrueVisions viewers to view the matches now via their own TrueVisions set-top boxes, TrueVisions viewers who bought GMM Z boxes to view the matches would feel unhappy as the boxes would be redundant to the TrueVisions boxes.
It was the right decision by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to look into this matter, as the problem also stems from the lack of clear rules regarding the broadcasting of copyrighted programmes on free TV channels.
The NBTC, which just got off the ground over six months ago, is aware of this. It is now moving at full speed to finish the rules, which will oblige broadcasters of TV programmes whether via cable networks, satellite dishes, and other platforms in the future, to carry free-TV channels. This is to guarantee that everyone can access free-TV programmes, regardless of their signal receiving devices.
It will also make a list of which kind of copyrighted programmes ones can view via free-TV channels, whether via a set-top box or an antenna, and work out rules for notifying viewers about which programmes they need to pay for in order to access.
Hopefully, this will prevent other problems like this in the future. If there are no further victims, today’s “hostages” will be happy.