Legal battle looms among Fox, Bangkok Bank, GMM and CTH
THE CAUSE of the dispute between Fox Networks Group Asia and Thailand’s biggest banker Bangkok Bank, which is leading to a court battle, is still unclear.
Fox said Bangkok Bank had failed to honour bank guarantees issued for CTH and GMM Grammy, while GMM Grammy and Bangkok Bank claimed that Fox was in breach of contract regarding content distribution.
Zubin Gandevia, president for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East for Fox Networks Group, said on Wednesday that two separate bank guarantees securing payments for distribution of its channels in Thailand by GMM Grammy and CTH were unconditional agreements issued by Bangkok Bank.
Fox signed separate channel-licensing agreements with GMM Grammy and CTH in 2013 to deliver entertainment and sports programmes to Thai viewers via pay-TV services run separately by GMM Grammy and CTH.
Gandevia said that three years ago, CTH and GMM Grammy had approached his company to make an agreement to license various products separately because at that time they were separate entities.
‘$71 million outstanding’
GMM Grammy established its own pay-TV service called GMM Z Pay-TV while CTH aimed to be one of the leaders in the pay-TV business after securing the rights to telecast the English Premier League for three seasons – 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. Because of the change in the media landscape and intense competition in the media industry, the two companies agreed to merge.
“They paid us for some time. We have US$71 million [about Bt2.5 billion] outstanding on the contracts. That led us to Bangkok Bank with the bank guarantees in the last 10 months but we saw no sign of good faith,” he said.
On Wednesday, Fox issued a statement saying it had filed a lawsuit against Bangkok Bank and CTH in Hong Kong and against the bank and GMM Grammy in Bangkok for Bt2.5 billion plus interest for allegedly failing to honour the two guarantees.
In response to this action, both Bangkok Bank and GMM Grammy issued separate statements to clarify their situation regarding these legal cases.
Kanit Si, executive vice president of Bangkok Bank, said in the statement that his bank had issued a bank guarantee to CTH but CTH insisted that Fox had breached its contract. The bank declined to comment further as the legal case is still under court review.
GMM Grammy’s corporate department also issued the same statement, which stated that Fox was the one that had violated the contract.
