NBTC approves 5-year fee waiver for TV channels

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NATIONAL BROADCASTING REGULATOR
NBTC approves 5-year fee waiver
Usanee Mongkolporn
Wachiranont Thongthep
The Nation

BANGKOK: - The national broadcasting committee yesterday unanimously approved a five-year waiver of the annual Universal Service Obligation fee for all 24 terrestrial digital TV channels for five years.

It also waived both the annual licence and USO fees for digital TV channels that simulcast their analog content on their digital channels.

The five-member committee will use this decision as the framework in an attempt to cajole Bangkok Entertainment Co, the operator of channel 3's analog programmes, to simulcast its content on its digital channel (Channel 33), said broadcasting commissioner Thawatchai Jittrapanun.

Channel 33 is operated by BEC's sister company, BEC-Multimedia.

The committee will hold a second round of talks with BEC today to urge it to simulcast its analog programmes.

The USO and the licence fee each account for 2 per cent of the digital TV operators' gross revenue. It is estimated that the USO fee of all 24 digital channels is around a combined Bt1 billion per year.

The National Broadcasting Telecommunications Commission collects the fee to fund the developing telecom and broadcasting industries.

However, NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith said the planned waiver of the free channels first needed the NBTC board's approval and the staging of a public hearing.

Surachai Chetchotisak, chief executive officer of RS, one of the terrestrial digital TV licence holders, tweeted yesterday that all broadcasters - regardless of their sizes - must operate in strict compliance with NBTC rules and should be treated on an equal basis by the watchdog.

Currently Channel 5 operator Royal Thai Army, Channel 7 operator Bangkok Broadcasting and Televisions, MCOT, Channel 11 operator Public Relations Department, and Thai PBS simulcast their analog content on their digital TV channels.

If the planned waiver takes effect, they would be the ones who would not have to pay the fees. BEC is the only company refusing to do simulcasts.

This prompts the NBTC to explore several means to pressure BEC to simulcast its analog programmes as part of its efforts to quickly switch the country into terrestrial digital TV era.

Thawatchai said that if BEC simulcasts the content before October 10, BEC-Multimedia's Channel 33 would be entitled to the waiver.

But if it simulcast the content after October 10, it would not enjoy the full waiver, without elaborating. The NBTC will start giving away coupons to households to buy digital TV set-top boxes on October 10.

Natee Sukonrat, the broadcasting committee chairman, said the committee would consult the Finance Ministry to determine if the digital operators could postpone the second payment of the up-front licence fee as this would help them transit into the new broadcasting era.

NBTC commissioner Supinya Klangnarong said the committee had also ordered the sub-committee examining state concessions to examine the relationship between BEC World, BEC, and BEC-Multimedia.

She said that if all of them could be deemed to be the same entity, she personally believed BEC should have no problem simulcasting the content.

One reason BEC cited for not simulcasting on its analog content was the fact that it and BEC-Multimedia were different entities.

BEC World is the parent of BEC. BEC operates the concession under MCOT.

Supinya said that if it was found that BEC, which held NBTC's licence to operate the analog TV broadcasting concession, did not run the analog programme on its own but had other parties run it, its licence to operate the concession should be revoked.

All the existing holders of state TV broadcasting concessions will automatically obtain NBTC licences to operate the concessions as required by the broadcasting law.

Pramote Chokesirikulchai, president of the Digital Entertainment Content Federation, said that to solve this simulcast problem, BEC should get a letter from MCOT confirming it allowed BEC to simulcast its analog TV programmes.

He said the NBTC must also solve the problem relating the ownership of digital terrestrial TV licenses.

He said that under the then-bidding conditions, the owners of digital TV licences must also be the operators.

BEC might have breached this condition if it simulcast content on BEC-Multimedia's channel.

Pramote, a senior adviser at BEC World, said the NBTC should look into this matter to make the simulcast possible.

Fees dropped for digital era

Analog TV operators that simulcast on digital:

_ Simulcast before October 10: A five-year waiver on annual fees set at 4% of revenue

_ Simulcast after October 10:

A five-year waiver on annual fees of less than 4% of revenue

24 digital TV operators:

_ Five-year waiver of annual universal service obligation fee of 2% of revenue

_ Finance Ministry may be asked about the possibility of postponing the second payment of licence upfront fee by a year.

Note: 4% = 2% digital TV licence fee + 2% universal service obligation fee

Source: Broadcasting Committee

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/NBTC-approves-5-year-fee-waiver-30243894.html

-- The Nation 2014-09-23

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The USO and the licence fee each account for 2 per cent of the digital TV operators' gross revenue. It is estimated that the USO fee of all 24 digital channels is around a combined Bt1 billion per year.

That's 5 billion Baht in five years of lost revenue for the state. This should be investigated by the NAAC

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The five-member committee will use this decision as the framework in an attempt to cajole Bangkok Entertainment Co, the operator of channel 3's analog programmes, to simulcast its content on its digital channel (Channel 33), said broadcasting commissioner Thawatchai Jittrapanun.

In what other country would a regulator have to cajole a licensee? The conversation should have been over before it started. Regulator; "may I see your government issued license to broadcast please"

Channel 3; "certainly, here it is", Regulator; Rrriiiiip!, "you may re-acquire your license when you meet regulatory standards, goodbye".