5 fail to meet licence fee deadline for 3rd instalment

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, the operator of PPTV; GMM Grammy, the operator of One 31 and GMM 25; Triple V Broadcast, the operator of Thairath TV; and Bright Television, the operator of the Bright TV news channel, missed the deadline, which was 4.30pm.

“At this point, we need further explanation from those digital-TV licensees on this matter. However, after the failure to meet this responsibility, they have to pay additional interest of 7.5 per cent per annum on top of their instalment payment in accordance with the broadcasting regulation,” he said.

However, Takorn said his administration would give them two more weeks to pay up before issuing written requests.

As of yesterday’s deadline, the NBTC received a total of Bt6.485 billion from 17 digital-TV licensees. They were Channel 3HD, 3SD, 3Family, MCOT HD, MCOT Family, True4U, TNN24, Nation TV, Now26, Channel 7HD, Amarin TV, Workpoint TV, Channel 8, Mono 29, VoiceTV, Springnews TV and New TV.

On behalf of the group of that decided to postpone their payments, Kematat Paladesh, president of Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, explained that they were waiting for the final ruling by the Central Administrative Court after those five television stations sued the NBTC last August for Bt9.55 billion in damages over the regulator’s alleged negligence in marshalling the transition from analog to digital TV. 

The court is expected to make a decision this Friday.

In this round of payments, the NBTC expects to receive total revenue of about Bt9.26 billion inclusive of value-added tax, paid by 24 terrestrial-based digital TV broadcasters. 

Of that total, about Bt3.94 billion will be from seven broadcasters of high-definition variety digital TV; around Bt3.19 billion from seven standard-definition variety broadcasters; about Bt1.81 billion from seven SD news broadcasters; and the remainder of about Bt377 million from three family channels.

Early this year, the NBTC revoked Thai TV Co’s two digital licences – one for a news channel and one in the family category – after it refused to pay the second instalment of its upfront licence fees last year. However, Bangkok Bank, the financial guarantor of Thai TV Co, paid the amount on behalf of its client.

Bangkok Bank is reported to have taken the responsibility for the new round of payment for its client as well. According to the NBTC, Thai TV has to pay a total of Bt384.344 million for the third instalment of its licence fees. Of the total amount, Bt260.651 million will be for its news channel and Bt123.692 million for its family channel.

Among those paying their third instalments, BEC World’s BEC-Multimedia, which operates 3HD, 3SD and 3Family, was the biggest spender with a total of Bt1.167.594 billion. Of that figure, Bt593.85 million was for the 3HD variety channel, Bt446.19 million for the 3SD variety channel and Bt127.544 million for the 3Family channel.

True Corporation ranked third, paying about Bt712.834 million for its True4U SD variety channel and TNN24 news channel.

Nation Multimedia Group paid Bt692.932 million for its two digital TV licences. Of that, Bt262.792 million was paid by NMG’s NBC Next Vision for the Nation |TV news station while Bt430.14 million was paid by its sister | company Bangkok Business Broadcasting for the Now 26 SD variety station.

State-owned media enterprise MCOT showed up last week to pay a total of Bt679.45 million for |the MCOT HD variety channel (Bt553.19 million) and MCOT Family channel (Bt126.26 million).

Takorn said his office would transfer the revenue it had received to the state soon.