Security channel earmarked for state authority
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The five-member broadcasting committee yesterday voted 3-1 to approve the conditions to operate a security channel on the terrestrial digital TV platform.
To be eligible, the party must be a state authority with the legal duty to protect the royal institution, preserve the country’s sovereignty or to keep the peace.
They must be ministries, state bureaus, independent bodies under the Constitution, or local administrative bodies.
Committee chairman Natee Sukonrat said state enterprises were not eligible.
Supinya Klangnarong, a member of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, voted against the definition as it appears to limit the opportunity to apply for a licence to only specific authorities such as the military or police.
Thawatchai Jittrapanun abstained from voting.
The conditions conform to Article 11(1) of the Broadcasting Act, Natee said. While there are many eligible national-security agencies, they would probably make a joint rather than a separate application for the licence, he said.
It has been decided to have 12 public digital TV channel licences but four have already been reserved for existing analog broadcasters to simulcast TV programmes. The other eight will be allocated via a “beauty contest” expected in June.
The channels are: science and environment; culture, religion and agriculture; health and public sports; government relations with the public; democracy promotion; the disabled and the underserved; state security; and public safety.
According to Article 20(2) of the act, the state security and public safety channels can seek revenue |from commercials but only enough to cover operating costs. They must not be profit-oriented.
Natee said the committee would later determine the proportion of revenue for the operators of these two channels. It will also set the conditions for the public safety channel soon.
