NBTC committee postpones auction of digital licenses

The NBTC will also have time to complete all its key related regulations.
The committee is also postponing from December to January the granting of licences for broadcasting service providers for public service and the planned five broadcasting network provider licences.
These decisions follow a meeting this week between Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the broadcast committee, with some free-TV operators. At that meeting, he was asked to provide more details of the decision to auction licences for commercial broadcasting service providers so they can draw up investment plans and decide which kind of licence they should go for.
Some of the operators also asked Natee about how they would be compensated if switching to digital TV from the current analog system affected their existing state concession revenue in the long run.
Natee responded to the queries by saying that everything would be clearer in January.
“We want to make the dream for a digital TV system come true in Thailand,” he said.
The NBTC will hold a public hearing tomorrow about its decision to divide terrestrial digital TV channels into 48 slots as well as on draft regulations on issuing licences for broadcasting-network providers.
The committee has allowed companies to apply for the network-provider licences but only for cable and satellite television. TrueVisions and GMM Grammy have applied for a licence for satellite TV, while Cable Thai Holdings has applied for a cable-TV licence.
Natee said the commission had made progress in setting up industry regulations. It is allowing operators of satellite and cable TV to apply for licences and letting community radio operators continue on a trial basis.
Of the 48 terrestrial digital television channels planned, four will be high-definition and the rest standard-definition. Of the 44 SD channels, 12 will be devoted to public service and another 12 to community service, while the remainder, including the four HD channels, will be for commercial broadcast.
The NBTC is dividing the terrestrial digital TV broadcasting licences into four main classes: broadcasting network service provider or the so-called multiplex service operators; broadcasting facility service providers; broadcasting service providers; and application service providers. Only operators wishing to provide commercial broadcasting services will need to bid for a spectrum.