Bid for delayed digital licence fee payment fades
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THE hopes of digital TV stations to get a one-year reprieve of the second instalment of the licensing fee appear to be fading fast because the broadcasting regulator needs to consult further with the Attorney-General's Office, Auditor-General's Office and
Sombat Leelapata, acting deputy secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said yesterday that all five members of its broadcasting committee would like to ensure that this decision was in the public interest and was transparent.
The committee yesterday agreed to put this matter on hold and ask those three organisations for their consideration on this matter before making a final decision.
Sombat said he could not guarantee that the responses from those organisations would be on time.
To allow digital TV operators to postpone licence payments without any conditions attached, as they suggested at a public hearing last week, the final decision must be made by the 10 members of the NBTC before May 24.
According to last week’s hearing, all 24 digital terrestrial-TV stations back a one-year postponement of the payment of the licensing fee, totalling Bt8.12 billion.
They also argued that the remaining annual instalments should be pushed back and paid within seven years, instead of the originally planned six-year period.
They opposed the idea of subjecting the delayed payments to interest charges.
They claimed that key requirements for the transition from analog to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting were still behind schedule. For example, public awareness remained low because of the late provision of subsidised coupons for the purchase of digital TV receivers. The transmission network for terrestrial-based digital television is also still behind the original timeline.
Sombat said the stations should be prepared in case the three organisations cannot provide their advice in time.
Suphab Kleekachai, executive adviser to both Thai TV and the Club of Digital Terrestrial TV Operators, said his company and other digital TV stations would hold a meeting this week to evaluate the situation and draft a back-up plan.
Suphab said he understood that the broadcasting committee’s decision was put on ice because a group of consumers had lodged a petition to the Attorney-General’s Office to investigate this matter if the broadcasting regulator sided with business, and not the public.
