Draft info memo for digital TV auction completed
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The broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission hopes to release by next month the information memorandum (IM) for the country's first auction in October of 24 commercial digital terrestrial TV licences.
The committee approved the final draft of the IM yesterday for submission to the meeting of the NBTC tomorrow.
Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the committee, said that if the IM gets the nod from the NBTC, it would be implemented in two weeks or about mid-August in line with the network leasing rates offered by four licensed network providers.
The IM, which describes the bidding process, and network leasing rates are key factors for all parties in deciding whether to join the auction.
The committee agreed to relax some restrictions in the IM’s content rules for digital channels. For example, for news channels, only 50 per cent of total airtime has to be filled with news and documentary programming, which is down from 75 per cent. With this extra flexibility, news stations could survive in this tough business compared with variety channels.
“We do not want to push those news channels to risk their business as in the case of iTV. Originally, iTV committed to 70 per cent of total airtime for news and documentaries but finally it failed in business as it could not handle the large number of news programmes with high production costs,” Natee said.
Paiboon Damrongchaitham, chairman of GMM Grammy, said that with this flexibility, the business of new digital TV broadcasters, particularly for news channels, would be more sustainable.
Pornpan Techarungchaikul, chief operating officer of RS, said the news category would become more attractive not only for news-oriented companies, but also for entertainment companies. However, Supinya Klangnarong, a member of the broadcasting committee, revealed via a personal message that she disagreed with this decision as she wanted the panel to do more research on this change first.
The committee also raised the minimum bidding increment for each round for a children’s channel to Bt2 million from Bt1 million. The starting price is set at Bt140 million for each children’s channel.
The committee believed that Bt1 million per round was too small and inconvenient for bidders during the auction.
The panel also granted a licence to Thai Public Broadcasting Service to provide digital terrestrial TV infrastructure.
