NBTC may borrow from own fund for TV licence compensation
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) subcommittee tasked with finding ways to compensate six digital TV broadcasters resolved on Monday that the watchdog borrow from its own fund to bail out the digital TV industry.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said on Tuesday that the regulator would borrow Bt3.785 billion from the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund for Public Interest to compensate six digital TV licence holders who will return seven licences to the watchdog.
The regulator will also borrow Bt552.8 million to subsidise the broadcasting network rental fee for all digital TV broadcasters from June 1 next year to September 30 the following year.
The subcommittee on Monday also concluded that Voice TV digital channel would get a compensation of Bt378.054 million for returning its licence.
The subcommittee set August 31 as the date for Voice TV to switch off its channel, pending final approval from the NBTC board.
The NBTC will use proceeds from its recent sale of 700MHz licences to the three telecom operators for the digital TV bailout. But these telecom operators will not pay the first instalment of the licence purchase until next October, according to the NBTC payment timeframe. The NBTC will use the proceeds from the 700MHz sale to cover the amount it borrows from the fund
The same subcommittee had recently resolved that the NBTC pay a compensation of more than Bt675 million to Spring 26 Channel (formerly NOW26), more than Bt500 million to Spring News Channel 19, and Bt371.983 million to Bright TV after they return their digital TV licences to the watchdog.
These three channels will go off the air at midnight on August 15.
Six commercial digital TV broadcasters had announced on May 10 that they were returning seven licences they had secured from the NBTC. May 10 was the deadline for broadcasters to declare their intention to return their licences.
The six broadcasters who opted to return their licences were: Spring News Television Co Ltd’s Spring News Channel 19, and Nation Multimedia Group’s Spring 26 Co Ltd, which will hand back its licence for Spring 26 Channel. The others are Bright TV, which is returning its licence for Channel 20, Voice TV for Voice TV Channel 21, MCOT for MCOT Family Channel 14, and BEC World’s Channel 3 for its Family Channel 13 and 3SD Channel 28.
The NBTC's move to ease the financial burden of all digital TV broadcasters and pay compensation to these six broadcasters is in line with the junta’s measure to ease the financial burden of the struggling digital TV industry.
