Defiant Thai TV to quit digital TV

Embattled digital TV broadcaster Thai TV Co yesterday threatened to broadcast its news and other content on multiple platforms except through digital TV receivers in a defiant move that could undermine the country’s transition from analog to digital broadcasting.
In the first round of talks with the National Broadcasting and Telecom Commission (NBTC) yesterday, the firm, which had earlier told the agency that it wanted to give up two digital TV broadcasting licences, remained adamant and accused the agency of failing to implement the broadcasting transition properly.
Pinyo Rootham, director of Thai TV, said the firm is not bankrupt as speculated, even though it decided not to pay the second instalment of licence fees to the NBTC early this week.
“I want to assure our audiences that our content will continue to be on air on satellite and cable TV platforms as well as on social media like Facebook and YouTube. We also have three popular magazine titles, which remain intact. In other words, we’re not going away except we’re no longer on the digital TV platform,” he said.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said Thai TV could face the risk of being blacklisted by the agency for a period of up to three years if it fails to meet the NBTC’s conditions on giving up licences.
If it is on the blacklist, the firm will not be able to apply for licences to broadcast on satellite, he added.
Pantipa Sakulchai, chairwoman of Thai TV, said Thai TV plans to return to its existing satellite TV channel, called Mystery channel, while Pinyo said its content will also be on local cable TV channels throughout the country.
Pinyo said the NBTC did not do a good job with public relations when launching the digital TV platform while its distribution of coupons for households to buy set-top boxes was significantly below target.
Overall, there are few households in the country that watch the firm’s contents on digital TV receivers.
Thai TV also said it would challenge the NBTC’s authority to seize bank guarantees amounting to more than Bt1.750 billion placed with the agency for two digital broadcasting licences – one for news and the other for children’s programming.
Legally speaking, the NBTC’s contract with the firm is to provide a broadcasting infrastructure but the agency had failed to deliver after the firm had paid the first instalment last year so there would be a dispute if the bank guarantee is forfeited, said Thai TV.
The NBTC levies a fine of 7.5 per cent on any late payment of licence fees, which works out to about Bt60,000 per day in the case of Thai TV.
Banthoon Lamsam, chairman of the board of Kasikornbank, one of the banks that issues bank guarantees to digital TV bidders, said the TV industry is facing a greater risk due to the economic uncertainty, as all 24 operators have to compete for a limited pool of advertising revenues.
“The unclear conditions as announced by the regulator have also affected digital TV,” he said, adding the bank has no plan to consider setting a loan-loss provision for the digital TV sector at this stage.
Meanwhile, the NBTC will seek approval from the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to distribute an additional 9 million vouchers to households to redeem digital TV signal receiving equipment so as to expand the viewer base. It has already given away vouchers to 14 million households.
The NBTC will also ask for the NCPO’s approval to compensate digital TV operators on airtime used by the NCPO, estimated to be around 2,500 minutes per channel.