Broadcasters to be subject to 'must carry' rules
Free-to-air TV broadcasters must pass all of their content through all other platforms in the Kingdom without any conditions, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commis-sion says.
The NBTC’s broadcasting committee yesterday approved the draft of “must carry” rules to prevent non-availability of free-TV programmes on some platforms because of copyright restrictions.
This follows complaints by TrueVisions subscribers that they could not watch live Euro 2012
soccer matches carried on free-TV signals.
Under the must-carry rules, transmission frequencies for radio or television broadcasting and telecommunication are considered national resources for the public interest. Therefore, free-to-air TV operators must be responsible for public broadcasting services on any platform.
Meanwhile, those companies that hold media rights to events like the Euro tournament must be aware of this rule before striking any deals with free-TV operators.
The must-carry rule is expected to be imposed on both existing analog terrestrial TV channels and coming digital services.
Once the NBTC issues licences of digital TV broadcast, network providers must carry public broadcasting services like ThaiPBS. However, network providers will be able to select commercial channels voluntarily.
Deputy NBTC secretary-general Presert Aphiphunya said the committee would work on further details before submitting this draft to the commission’s board next week. If the committee approves this final draft, it will go to public hearing.
