Channel rule change may land NBTC in court

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NBTC
Channel rule change may land NBTC in court
Watchiranont Thongtep
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Leading cable and satellite-TV operators could file a lawsuit against a draft rule intended to rearrange the channel numbers of digital terrestrial-TV channels on their platforms, as they deem the proposed change to be unfair.

The draft rule was approved on August 25 by the broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

A public hearing must be held to consider the proposed change, before a revised draft is submitted for the NBTC's final approval.

No date has yet been set for the public hearing, but the revised rule is expected to come into effect in October or November.

"If this rule is put in place, we would have to call for justice by filing a lawsuit to the Central Administrative Court, as it would be an unfair law," Manop Tokanka, president of the club of cable and satellite-TV network operators, said yesterday after handing over an open letter to a representative of the NBTC, opposing the draft rule.

Manop and other high-ranking executives from major cable and satellite-TV network providers such as PSI Holding, Chareon Cable TV and Infosat showed up yesterday at the NBTC's head office.

Somporn Teerachanapong, chief executive officer of PSI Holdings - the country’s largest satellite-TV operator - said he would attend the upcoming public hearing and explain why the regulator's proposed change was unfair on cable and satellite-TV operators.

Under the current regulation, cable and satellite companies arrange channels 1 to 10 according to their own preferences, followed by 36 terrestrial digital channels.

The new rule, however, would require all TV platforms to begin with 12 public digital channels, followed by 24 commercial digital-TV channels. How channels 37 to 60 are arranged would be left up to the TV operators.

Somporn said that around the time of last year's licence auction, all digital-TV broadcasters had already acknowledged that their channel numbers would be placed from 23 to 46 on cable and satellite-TV platforms, while the 12 public broadcasting service channels would run from 11 to 22.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Channel-rule-change-may-land-NBTC-in-court-30242914.html


-- The Nation 2014-09-10