NBTC panel to review ruling on News' stake in Nation Group
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THE National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission yesterday ordered the Broadcasting Committee to review its decision on News Network Corporation's controversial acquisition of an equity interest in Nation Multimedia Group.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC, said all 10 commissioners agreed with the opinion of their legal committee, which had been asked last month by Supinya Klangnarong, a member of the Broadcasting Committee, to look into the case.
The legal committee found that, under Article 27(17) of the Frequency Allocation Act, the authority to determine whether mergers or acquisitions could result in domination of the broadcasting business to the detriment of people’s freedom to access news and information lay with the NBTC.
However, the decision on the purchase of NMG shares by News Network Corporation, formerly known as Solution Corner (1998), was made by the Broadcasting Committee on March 30.
“We would like to make this issue clean and transparent. Therefore, the NBTC agrees to grant authority to the Broadcasting Committee to restart the process of considering this matter,” Takorn said.
The majority of the five-member Broadcasting Committee had voted to approve a resolution passed on March 23 that the rules governing the NBTC’s auction of digital-television licences should not be enforced on News’ acquisition of a 12.27-per-cent stake in NMG.
Under those rules, a major shareholder is not allowed to hold more than 10 per cent of other companies in the same licence category.
News is a major shareholder of Springnews Corp, which owns 100 per cent of digital-channel licence holder Springnews Television.
NMG’s subsidiary Nation Broadcasting Corp owns 100 per cent of NBC Next Vision, which holds a digital TV licence. It also runs Nation TV, another digital station.
