Annual fee mulled on sales revenue of set-top boxes
THE BROADCASTING committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has considered imposing an annual fee on the revenue from the one-off sales of satellite TV set-top boxes this year in its move to regulate the business.
The NBTC acting deputy-secretary general Sombat Leelapata said that the committee assigned the NBTC office to work out if the fee would be imposed directly on companies that imported the boxes for sales or on satellite network operators.
The fee would target boxes sold on a one-off basis and without the monthly subscription service fee.
All satellite TV network operators are under the NBTC’s licensing regime. Some offer the set-top boxes with a monthly subscription fee and a one-off sales basis, while some only sell the boxes on a one-off basis.
Sombat said that some satellite TV broadcasters had set up subsidiaries to market the non-subscription boxes.
However, he said that they reportedly did not include revenue from the box sales in their broadcasting service revenue on the assumption that under the NBTC licences they were subject only to a service revenue payment, not the equipment sales revenue payment.
But the NBTC office believed that they should include revenue from the box sales as well.
Sombat added that the broadcasting committee agreed in principle with the NBTC office’s proposal that revenue from the one-off sales should be subject to the fee.
