DIGITAL TV WOES STUDIED
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Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday ordered Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam to urgently consider whether there is a case for the junta chief to invoke his special constitutional powers to ease the financial problems of digital TV operators.
A proposal has been made for Prayut to use his powers under Article 44 of the interim constitution to assist the operators.
Earlier, government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission secretary-general Takorn Tantasith and Wissanu told the working group looking into the digital TV sector’s problems of a proposal to allow the operators to suspend their licence payments for three years.
The proposal also calls for the government to subsidise half of the rental fee for broadcasting networks for 24 months, and extend the due date of licence payments, scheduled for 2019 – applicable for the winners of the 2015 4G mobile licence auction on the 900MHz spectrum - by a further five years.
