Brewers In Bar Brawl Over World Cup

[george]

Brewers in bar brawl over Cup

BANGKOK: -- Boon Rawd Brewery Co Ltd said yesterday it would send a circular to its 50 or so restaurants and pubs in Bangkok clarifying what they could and could not do during the broadcasting of the Fifa World Cup.

The firm, which makes the Singha and Leo beer brands, said this was so they would avoid violating the rights of competitor and World Cup broadcast licence-holder, Thai Beverage Plc. Boon Rawd said that Thai Beverage, which makes Chang beer, would violate the Competition Act if they forced all their [boon Rawd's] outlets - including pubs and restaurants - to sell Chang if they [the outlets] wanted a licence to show World Cup matches live.

"I have been receiving many complaints from our dealers on this issue daily.

"And what we can do is to study the legalities of the broadcasting licence for the World Cup and clarify them so they [the dealers] know what they should do to avoid violating the terms of the licence," said Chatchai Wiratyosin, marketing manager for Boon Rawd.

"One of our dealers jokingly said they would sell Chang at Bt500 a bottle to cover the cost of a licence to screen the matches," he said.

DhosPaak Co Ltd, an affiliate of Thai Beverage, spent about Bt250 million for the exclusive rights to broadcast the 64 World Cup matches in Thailand. The tournament runs from June 9 to July 9. All matches will be broadcast locally through free TV channels.

Vorawoot Rojanaparnich, managing director of DhosPaak, said previously that the company would strictly monitor pubs and restaurants, as well as other entertainment venues, to ensure they did not violate the local broadcasting rights owned by his company.

"As holder of the local broadcasting rights, we will not allow any entertainment venue to benefit commercially during the live broadcasting of World Cup matches. We will strictly monitor them so that they do not violate these rights," Vorawoot said.

Chatchai said that Boon Rawd would not be involved in any promotional activities related to the World Cup.

"In my opinion, all entertainment venues, including pubs and restaurants, can show World Cup matches live as they are being broadcast on free channels. These outlets normally show TV programmes on free channels for their clients enjoyment in their daily operations. However, any extra activities such as organising promotional campaigns related to the World Cup or the use of the World Cup mascot and logo would be a violation of the licence agreement," he said.

"Chang will be damaged if they force entertainment venues who want to show World Cup matches to sell only Chang while blocking sales of rival beer brands. Or will they just make a deal with their outlets covering only the one month of the World Cup?" said Chatchai.

Somchai Suttikulpanich, senior deputy managing director of Thai Beverage Marketing Co Ltd, said in an interview on iTV yesterday that there was a misunderstanding and that Thai Beverage would never force anybody who wanted to show World Cup matches to sell only Chang beer or charge them a licence fee.

"We face this kind of problem every time we get a licence to broadcast big sporting events. But in principle, we legally own the broadcasting rights for the World Cup and we are able to use them for any activity we see fit," said Somchai.

DhosPaak will today organise a press conference at its head office in the Empire Tower on Sathorn Road to clarify the issue.

--The Nation 2006-05-31

[Ned]

Is it true that this Dhospaak has decided, at least at this stage to not include English commentary for the world cup coverage. Last time UBC subscribers watching the games on Thai free to air via satellite had a choice of Thai or English. Not this time it seems.