Banks outline woes of operators

Werasak Sutantawiboon, executive vice president of Bangkok Bank, said yesterday that the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is likely to respond affirmatively to the problems of digital TV operators.

While, in fact, banks are not litigating with the NBTC, the NBTC wants to hear about the actual problems of the industry, he said.

The digital TV operators have not performed up to the bank’s expectations, however, those that are customers of the bank have a strong financial status even though they have experienced lower ad revenues. The bank will review the ability of its customers to generate revenue from advertising as well as their audience ratings because low ratings have hurt the revenue of digital TV operators. The bank has no need to set up extra provisions for digital TV customers.

Suwat Techawatanawana, first senior vice president of Kasikornbank, said the current problem of digital TV is the changing platforms.

Digital TV is no longer the only medium with content. High speed Internet and 4G allow viewers to watch content on demand from anywhere at anytime.

However, the bank has made a proactive move for this business by preparing to convert the letters of guarantee into long-term loans to ease any unexpected problems, especially in the case that customers are unable to pay their debts to the bank.