There is no such thing as a free TV, so pay and watch World Cup

Any lingering hopes of watching, arguably the world’s most watched sporting event, on free television channels like before, were snuffed out by the Central Administrative Court’s ruling in favour of RS Broadcasting and Sport Management Co Ltd, the country’s broadcasting rights holders.

RS filed an appeal to rescind the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s “must-carry” rule that included the football World Cup as one of the seven sporting tournaments that should be shown on free television channels in the country.

The NBTC rule put RS’s plan to sell its new set top box for viewing the World Cup under the cosh. However, the court’s ruling meant that people have to pay if they want to see the whole tournament to be held in Brazil for the first time since 1950. Though the court’s ruling deprives the public a chance to watch all the matches, it appears a just decision. The court had its reason. It stated that RS had purchased the rights before the “must-have” rules came into existence so it could not be applied in retrospect.

RS’s gain is Thai people’s loss. Now many of them are weighing up the option of whether to buy the “World Cup box” priced at Bt1590 or not for an event that comes once in every four years. Those who opt to keep money in their pockets will have to brace themselves for a relatively less pleasant World Cup experience this time.

Indeed, the public will be able to follow some World Cup action. RS was “magnanimous” enough to allocate 22 matches, including the final, on free television Channel 7 and the company’s very own Channel 8. But, there is a catch here: most of those fixtures involve unfancied teams such as Honduras or Greece.

To be able to follow famous teams like the three-time world champions Germany and 1966 champions England throughout the month-long tournament, people have no choice but to buy the box. Some of them may even abandon the thought when they think about the sheer number of boxes that clutter the living room. Nowadays, Thai people need to buy at least three boxes to watch the action in Europe’s top five football leagues. There is some relief for the existing RS’s Sun Box customers. They need to pay only an add-on fee of Bt299 to watch the World Cup. So the modern day mantra is that all good things are not free and everyone has to pay in these times of high competition in the sports broadcasting business.

A year on from today, the problem will certainly resurface again when the Thai women’s team makes its first appearance in the World Cup in Canada.

There is no doubt that everyone would like to see the Thai women embark on their maiden campaign but the question is how far would the people go to get a chance to watch them play.