TrueVisions must pay daily fine over soccer fiasco

Supinya Klangnarong, the NBTC member who sits on the watchdog’s subcommittee for consumer protection, yesterday reaffirmed that TrueVisions had to pay a daily fine of Bt20,000 for the entire period of the tournament.
However, TrueVisions can submit a petition to the Administrative Court if the operator feels this outcome is not appropriate, she said.
TrueVisions claims that not being able to air the Euro 2012 matches was not its fault because GMM Grammy, the holder of the broadcast rights, would not allow free-TV operators to transmit the signal through satellite receivers.
The broadcasting watchdog has also determined that the country’s leading subscription-based television operator must complete negotiations with 174 subscribers and come up with proper solutions and remedial measures by October.
The 174 TrueVisions subscribers had submitted complaints to the NBTC about not being able to get access to live broadcasts of the soccer tournament.
Blank screens during the live Euro 2012 games had brought the largest number of complaints from local TV viewers in the last four and a half months, Supinya added.
From February 15 to June 30, there were 400 complaints from viewers around the Kingdom. They were related to four key problems in radio and television broadcasting services from both registered and non-registered operators.
Of these complaints, 205 were from viewers who could not access live Euro 2012 matches via satellite-TV sets. They include the 174 complaints from TrueVisions’ subscribers.
When all 400 complaints were divided by type of media, the NBTC found that those concerning satellite-TV business, including True-Visions, had the biggest share with 221 complaints.
This was followed by 64 complaints from non-registered radio stations, 34 from free-to-air TV channels and the remainder from registered radio stations and cable-TV operators.
The watchdog has, however, already solved 217 of the complaints, Supinya said.
The main problems in the 400 complaints concerned improper contracts with pay-TV operators; weak radio and television broadcasting signals due to nearby noise; non-availability of some free-to-air TV programmes on satellite-TV receivers due to copyright restriction; and false advertising in |the food, drug and supplement categories.
The NBTC hopes to complete all draft broadcasting regulations related to these issues by next month to prevent such problems recurring in the longer term, she said.
For instance, the agency is drafting a standard customer contract for subscription-based TV operators and working closely with the Food and Drug Administration to oversee and control false advertising on cable- and satellite-TV channels.