NBTC may postpone digital-TV licence fee payment
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THE board of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission yesterday approved in principle the request by terrestrial digital-TV operators to postpone their payment of the second instalment of the upfront licence fee by one year from the cur
However, the final granting of approval is subject to the NBTC first holding a public hearing on key issues within the next 15 days.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the watchdog, said the issues to be put to the hearing included whether the postponement should mean the digital-TV operators must pay the second and third instalments at the same time, in May next year, or whether could pay the second instalment next May, and the third in May 2017.
The latter would mean a similar deferment of all further payments until all instalments were paid within seven years, instead of the originally planned six-year period, he said.
The other issues are whether the operators should be required to pay the delayed instalment fee plus interest at the Bank of Thailand’s minimum lending rate, and whether the NBTC should introduce a measure to protect consumers from the potential effects of delayed fee payments.
Seven of the 10 NBTC board members voted to approve the request for a one-year delay to the second payment date, with chairman Thares Punsri declining to vote and commissioners Settapong Malisuwan and General Sukit Khamasundara abstaining by choosing to leave the meeting room.
Takorn said the majority of the commissioners had agreed that all digital-TV operators continued to be affected by the economic downturn, the political situation and the delay of terrestrial digital-TV network installation.
The Club of Digital Terrestrial TV Operators yesterday welcomed the NBTC board’s decision, but disagreed with the idea that delayed payment should be subject to an additional interest burden.
Suphab Kleekachai, president of the club, said it would be extremely unfair if the operators had to do so, and it would in effect double their interest charges.
“Normally, each digital-TV operator has to pay interest incurred from its existing bank loan. We do not think this idea is helpful for operators already shouldering the high costs of TV production, signal transmission and licence fees,” he added.
Suphab also suggested that all remaining instalments of the licence fee should be postponed, and not only the second round.
If the watchdog allowed the operators to postpone their second instalment from this year to next, but left the third round unadjusted, it would create a huge difficulty for all digital-TV broadcasters to pay a combined instalment in just over a year’s time.
Putting aside the question of additional interest, MCOT director-general Sivaporn Chomsuvarn said delayed payment of the second instalment would improve the liquidity of the listed state enterprise, which runs two terrestrial digital-TV channels – MCOT HD and MCOT Family.
The NBTC broadcasting committee held a licence auction in December 2013 that resulted in the granting of 24 licences to 17 bid winners in April last year.
The total value of the licence payments is Bt50.86 billion, spread over a number of years.
