No delay in licence fee payment: NBTC

The decision was approved by six of the 10 NBTC members, who agreed with the opinions of the Office of the Attorney-General and the Office of Auditor-General.
Disappointed by the decision, some major operators of terrestrial-based digital television channels will jointly file a lawsuit with the Central Administrative Court against the broadcasting regulator, alleging dereliction of duty during the transition of the country to digital TV broadcasting.
“We will convene a meeting with other digital-TV broadcasters, manufacturers of digital-TV receivers and consumer rights groups as soon as possible, because we believe the NBTC has failed to deliver its promise to make digital TV broadcasting up and ready both for TV operators and viewers,” Adisak Limprungpatanakij, chief executive officer of Nation Broadcasting Corporation, said yesterday.
Adisak and other executives from GMM Grammy, Bangkok Media and Broadcasting also complained that the digital transition was facing difficulties and was behind its original schedule.
“What was required to be done by the watchdog – as it promised us – was quality coverage of the digital TV network, a national public relations campaign to promote awareness of this new service, financial support for TV audience measurement and a single standard of channel numbering in all broadcasting platforms,” said Premon Pinskul, CEO of GMM Grammy, a music and entertainment giant that also holds two digital-TV licences, for GMM 25 and One HD channel.
Despite being far from satisfied, so far 16 digital TV broadcasters have decided to pay their second instalment of the licence fee, totalling Bt6.647 billion.
Bangkok Broadcasting and Television, the operator of Channel 7HD, paid Bt683 million; Thai Broadcast-Workpoint TV operator Bt333.3 million; Mono Broadcast Bt322 million for its “Mono 29” channel; and GMM Grammy Bt326 million for its variety standard-definition “GMM 25” channel and Bt678 million for “One”, a high-definition variety channel.
Nation Multimedia Group (NMG) led by CEO Duangkamol Chotana also paid a total of Bt506 million as the second instalment for its two licences – Bt316 million for Now 26, a variety SD channel, and Bt190 million for Nation TV news SD channel.
MCOT also paid a total of Bt843 million as the second instalment for its MCOT HD (Bt680 million) and MCOT Family (Bt163.94 million). BEC-Multimedia paid a total of Bt1.1256 billion for 3HD (Bt700 million), 3SD (Bt324.4 million) and 3 Family (Bt101.22 million) while Amarin Television paid Bt678.38 million. True Corporation paid Bt187 million for TNN 24 and Bt329 million for True4U.
Besides paying the fee, Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, GMM Grammy and NMG also sent a complaint to the watchdog seeking remedial measures, after the slow transition from analog to digital.
In response to this, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said he would ask the military’s ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) for permission to begin the second phase of a subsidy scheme with an additional 8.7 million digital TV coupons, on top of the 14.4 million in the first phase. These coupons can be redeemed towards the purchase of digital receivers.