Potential TV licence bidders press for more info on costs

Major content providers are still questioning how much they would have to pay to lease a network if they win one of the 24 broadcasting licences for commercial digital terrestrial TV.

“This cost is the most significant factor but it still remains unclear,” Chalakorn Panyashom, executive vice president for the television business 2 at Workpoint Entertainment, said yesterday.

Also yesterday, the NBTC broadcasting committee gathered input from a focus group session, particularly from leading content producers interested in joining the auction for the licences.

The focus group was part of the National Broadcasting and Telecommu-nications Commission’s public hearing on the draft auction rules. The NBTC will welcome public opinions until July 10. The focus group included IPM TV, GMM Grammy, RS, Workpoint Entertainment, Voice TV, Rose Media, Nation Broadcasting Corp, Thai Rath, Amarin Printing and Publishing, and telecom giant InTouch. 

Their executives raised concerns about network leasing services following the “must carry rule”, which is a condition for obtaining a licence. They need to know this before making a decision to join the bidding.

Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the broadcasting committee, said the exact network leasing costs and interconnection charges would be known once the licensed network providers are ready to operate. 

Most potential network providers are existing free-TV operators such as MCOT, the Army, the Public Relations Department and Thai Public Broadcasting Service. 

Supinya Klangnarong, the commissioner who chairs the consumer rights protection committee, said the selection process was on track. The broadcasting committee was working on some details of the qualifications and business plans of potential network providers for digital terrestrial TV. 

However, Chockchai Punjarungroj, deputy CEO of Amarin Printing and Publishing, said the broadcasting committee should conduct its own study to determine the proper network leasing cost that digital TV licensees could shoulder. 

“The NBTC should not let the handful of network providers dominate the market,” he said.

Chalakorn said that under the must-carry rule, all licensed operators must transmit their digital TV signal to all kinds of platforms. 

Another hot issue raised by the focus group was the possibility of the winners of the seven standard-definition variety licences upgrading to high definition in the future, as this might create intense competition in HD services.

 

Starting prices 

The NBTC has set starting prices for the auction at Bt1.51 billion for each of seven HD variety channels, Bt380 million for each of seven SD variety channels, Bt220 million for each of seven news channels and Bt140 million for each children’s channel. 

The auctions for each licence category will be held separately on different days. The order of the auctions of each category will be decided after the applications are complete and qualified bidders are announced. 

Each auction must be completed within one hour. If the number of bidders offering the highest prices is greater than the number of available licences, the NBTC will call five-minute rounds until the winners of each licence category are known.

Natee said the winners could choose their channel number and network provider on top of getting a service licence and the right to hold a frequency. The concept of this unique spectrum auction must reflect true fairness and transparency. 

However, to optimise the available frequencies for digital broadcasting, his committee determined that each network provider could manage two HD and six SD channels for digital terrestrial TV operators.