All operators, bar Thai TV, pay fee by due day
Twenty-two commercial terrestrial digital-TV channels, with combined revenue of Bt3.7 billion to Bt4 billion last year, together paid between Bt75 million and Bt80 million in first-year licence fees to the broadcasting regulator on the due date yesterday.
Seventeen companies operate the country’s 24 commercial digital-TV channels, but Thai TV, which operates two channels, yesterday declined to pay the annual licence fee, according to a source at the National Broad-|casting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
Thai TV has already been in the spotlight due to its refusal to pay the second instalment of the upfront licence fee on the due date of May 25, citing that the regulator had failed to create a favourable business landscape for digital-TV broadcasters to survive.
The first annual fee payment due yesterday cost each broadcaster 2 per cent of its gross revenue.
The three analogue TV operators – Channel 3, Channel 7 and Thai TPBS – also showed up at the NBTC to pay their annual licence fees yesterday.
According to a source at the regulator, Channel 3, which generated revenue of Bt9.5 billion last year, paid a fee of Bt190 million, while Channel 7, which generated Bt3 billion, paid Bt60 million.
Thai TV operates two digital terrestrial-TV channels: the Thai TV news channel, and the Local family channel. It also runs satellite-TV channels.
Under the NBTC’s rules for digital operators, if an operator fails to pay the annual licence fee within 15 days after the due date, its licence will be revoked and it also risks revocation of any other kinds of licence it holds.
Previously, Thai TV – led by chairwoman Pantipa "Tim TV Pool" Sakulchai – insisted it would not pay this year’s second instalment of the upfront fee because, it argued, the regulator should be held responsible for damages in light of its inability to create a favourable landscape for the broadcasters.
The first fee instalment was paid in May last year, and Thai TV was supposed to make the second payment by May 25 this year.
The amount due is Bt1.6344 billion-Bt1.1072 billion for the news channel, and Bt527.2 million for Local.
On May 28, the NBTC issued a written order to Thai TV to pay the second instalment within 15 days.
