Digital TV ownership might be changed for public interest: Federation

 

“The idea doesn’t appear to be the right answer to problems involving the number of parties in the broadcasting industry during the transition to the digital terrestrial TV era,” said Kematat Paladesh, vice president of the federation.

Kematat, who is also president of Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, the operator of the PPTV digital high-definition TV channel, was responding to an idea floated by Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), to address a current problem.

Thai TV Co, owned by media |veteran Pantipa “Tim TV Pool” Sakulchai, gave up its digital terrestrial TV business and submitted a request to return the digital TV licences of the Thai TV news channel and Loca family channel to the watchdog. 

The company also refused to pay the second instalment of the up-front licence fee and the annual licence fee.

Takorn proposed an amendment to the broadcasting regulation to allow a digital terrestrial TV broadcaster facing difficulties in business to transfer its rights to another potential TV operator.

The NBTC has two options to change the law: propose to the National Legislative Assembly to amend Article 9 of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Business Act and Article 43 of the Act on Organisation to Assign Radio Frequency and to Regulate the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Service; propose to the National Council for Peace and Order to issue an order under Article 44 of the provisional constitution.

This change would definitely impact the TV broadcasting industry, so the NBTC must make sure that it was deliberately not created in favour of a particular party.

“The watchdog must start a dialogue with the industry as soon as possible if it wants to take further steps on this matter,” Kematat said.

Supinya Klangnarong, a member of the Broadcasting Committee, came out against the idea.

This was considered an old-school solution that created a conflict in media reform. 

According to the law, the NBTC is fully authorised to deal with any problems related to radio frequency allocation, she said.

“In my personal opinion, I totally disagree. Spectrums are public goods, not personal assets. The courts are already there to solve a dispute if needed,” she said.

Under the current broadcasting regulations, in case a digital TV broadcaster experienced difficulties in business, there were many ways out to keep its business alive, she said. 

For example, it could seek new content partners or stakeholders, but the change must comply with broadcasting rules, she said.