NBTC okays standard pay-TV contract

NBTC okays standard pay-TV contract

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) approved a regulation on standard contracts for pay-TV services to ensure consumer rights are protected.

The new regulation requires a legitimate contract for pay-TV service must be approved by the regulator at least 60 days before its implementation.

When a pay-TV operator wants to degrade related equipment for pay-TV services, it must seek approval from the NBTC. If the operator uses non-approved contracts, it will be punished for exploitation of consumer rights in broadcasting.

The contract must contain clear content about services, related devices, standards and quality of service, the operator's responsibilities to its client, service fees including additional fees, and how to revoke pay-TV services.

This regulation also includes pre-paid services such as pay-per-view, video-on-demand and a la carte service. The regulation will take effect after its announcement in the Royal Gazette early next year.

Supinya Klangnarong, on the NBTC's committee overseeing consumer protection, said the commission received 74 complaints from pay-TV subscribers the first nine months of this year, with 58% of them about TrueVisions and the rest about newcomers CTH and Grammy's GMM Z.

The complaints mostly involved poor signal transmission, exaggerated claims and technical problems.

Takorn Tanthasit, the NBTC's secretary-general, said after receiving many complaints about content, the regulator decided to buy content-monitoring equipment valued at 50 million baht to monitor illegal content. The NBTC also requires the content records from channel operators. Content monitoring can start later this month.

The NBTC set a 5.4-billion-baht budget for 2014, up from 4.6 billion this year.

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