Thai TV to delay up-front licence fee payment
Thai TV Co will not pay the second instalment of its up-front licence fee this year, claiming that the regulator must take responsibility for the difficulties faced by the digital-TV broadcasting industry, said company chairwoman Pantipa Sakulchai.
She blamed the broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commis-sion (NBTC) for failing to create a favourable landscape for the business.
She believes that many digital-TV broadcasters will join with her company in declining to pay the second instalment of the up-front fee agreed when the licences were allocated by auction.
Last week the NBTC board approved in principle a request by digital-TV broadcasters to postpone their payments of the second instalment by one year from the currently scheduled date of May 24. However, the final approval cannot be made until the NBTC holds a public hearing on key issues on May 6.
If the postponement is approved, it could mean the licence-holders pay both the second and third instalments in May next year, or just the second in May 2016 and the third in May 2017.
The second choice would mean a similar deferment of all further payments until all instalments are paid within seven years, instead of the originally planned six-year period.
This is one of three issues to be put to the public hearing next week. The others are whether the operators if terrestrial-based digital TV channels should be required to pay interest on their deferred licence payments, and whether the NBTC should introduce a measure to protect consumers from the potential effects of the delayed payments.
Pantipa admitted that Thai TV Co made a wrong forecast about the outlook of the digital TV broadcasting business. Thai TV won two licences at the NBTC auction, one for a family channel by bidding Bt648 million, and another for a news channel, for which it bid Bt1.328 billion.
Last year the company spent Bt1 billion on the two digital channels. Of that, Bt400 million was for the first instalment of the licence fee, Bt200 million for developing TV dramas, and the rest on other programming. The company suffered a loss of more than Bt300 million last year, Pantipa said.
The loss prompted the company to seek a partnership with MV Television, which led to a five-year agreement. MVTV currently operates satellite TV channels under the MV brand. Pantipa denied reports that the partnership was accomplished by way of Thai TV selling its shares to MVTV. She added that she had acquired some shares of MVTV but declined to elaborate.
She said the agreement was made in strict compliance with NBTC regulations, under which the company allows MVTV to sublease its airtime for nine hours per day.
Under the terms of the partnership, Thai TV is adjusting the operations of its two channels. Its family channel Loca will be renamed MVTV Family. It will also join with MVTV in marketing the two channels.
Pantipa said she hoped that after the operational adjustments, the company’s news channel Thai TV would become one of the leaders in its category this year.
Revenue for that channel is targeted at Bt400 million, while the family channel targets revenue of Bt200 million.
The company has also relaunched its TV Pool satellite channel, which it had shut down after winning the digital TV licences.
She said the company’s digital TV business was expected to make a monthly operating profit in May.
Recently Thai TV raised its capital to Bt800 million from Bt200 million. The company sold 8 per cent of its shares to a new partner but Pantipa declined to disclose its name.
She said she would prepare Thai TV to list on the Market for Alternative Investment next February.
