Army, PRD TV stations to sign off in 5 years

The Army and the Public Relations Department stations will be last state-run TV stations to sign off their analog service in five years, according to the framework finalised yesterday by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)’s broadcasting committee.

“Our decision was made and based on the public interest,” said Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the committee. 

The committee issued the rules after the state-run media operators submitted over the past five months their plans to clarify the necessity to hold their frequencies.

The committee wants to implement its analog switch-off plan in line with the five-year digital network roll-out plan, which calls for digital TV coverage to be expanded to 95 per cent of the country within four years and for subsidised coupons to be deployed to transition to digital TV in five years. 

Besides those two TV broadcasters, MCOT will cease analog broadcasting at its Modernine TV channel after the completion of the auction for 24 commercial digital TV licences in October. However, MCOT plans to join the auction to get three such licences for standard and high definition (HD) variety shows and children’s programmes.

Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS) will receive a one-year right to hold its analog frequency to run its TV station after its licence expires on April 17 of next year until it is ready to return the frequency to the NBTC. 

It appears that the Army will apply for a public digital terrestrial TV licence for national security and the PRD for a licence for government public relations. 

The committee also suggested that both the Army and PRD develop their five-year transition plans to comply with the requirements of the type of public service broadcasters they want to be. The plans must be proposed within one year. 

Natee said that although the exact terms for Thai PBS to hold its frequency have not yet been determined, the spectrum holding periods would comply with Section 88 of the Act on Organisation to Assign Radio Frequency and to Regulate the Broadcasting and Telecommunica-tions Services.

Thai PBS has signed a memorandum of understanding with the NBTC to accelerate its switch from analog to digital to three years. The NBTC will issue 15-year HD licences for Thai PBS’s existing channel and its new Learning channel. 

An NBTC source said MCOT and the Army should discuss with their concession holders their terms to operate analog TV stations.

Bangkok Broadcasting and TV has a concession from the Army to operate Channel 7 until 2022. Bangkok Entertainment Co, a subsidiary of BEC World Plc, has a concession from MCOT to run Channel 3 until March 2020.

Natee said that during the simulcast trial, the six TV stations will broadcast their programmes in both analog and digital HDTV. 

The broadcasting committee also approved in principle to issue 15-year network providing licences to the Army, MCOT, PRD and Thai PBS, which would propose their leasing rates to the committee as soon as possible after receiving their licences tomorrow. 

Those network providers will be allowed to work together and integrate their transmission networks on a benefit-sharing basis in order to increase digital-TV coverage in the country.

Separately, the GSM Association (GSMA) renewed its call for Thailand to allocate the 700MHz band for mobile broadband services in full harmonisation with the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) band plan. The GSMA also held a press conference on the issue.

The move came as the allocation plans of the NBTC’s telecom and broadcasting committees overlap. The Broadcasting Committee has allocated the 510-790MHz range to digital TV, but the NBTC’s telecom roadmap subcommittee has proposed that 698-806MHz be reserved for the future provisioning of mobile broadband in line with the standards of the International Telecom Union and APT.