The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has officially endorsed a three-year suspension of terrestrial digital TV operators' licence payments by requesting that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) invoke Section 44, allowing operators to postpone their payments.
The regulator also offered to use its Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund to subsidise some parts of the rental fee of broadcasting networks to help digital TV operators pay the combined 2.5 billion baht per year.
The move comes in the wake of an NCPO letter that asked the regulator for its opinion about demands by the Association of Digital TV Operators, which for months urged the government to invoke Section 44 to help them survive the current crisis.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the NBTC office submitted a proposal for additional assistance to the NCPO on Dec 14.
The regulator insisted that its stance of additional assistance for digital TV operators would not damage the public interest.
"The NBTC wants the government to invoke Section 44 to ease operators' financial burdens because the present crisis of digital TV operators not only affects the broadcasting industry, but also related businesses and their employees," Mr Takorn said.
He said the NBTC office's proposal would not fulfil all requirements of the Association of Digital TV Operators, whose full laundry list of demands was too expansive.
The NBTC granted 24 digital TV licences to 17 winning bidders in 2014, with combined winning prices of 50.86 billion baht. The operators have already paid a combined 34 billion baht to the NBTC, or 64% of the combined winning prices.
Under the NBTC's proposal, the existing digital TV operators can stop paying their last two terms of licence payments during 2018-20, so they would continue to make licence payments for the fifth and sixth terms in 2021 and 2022.
For the rental fee of broadcasting networks, Mr Takorn said the NBTC would use its fund to subsidise the digital TV operators. He declined to elaborate on further details, saying only that the final decision was now up to the NCPO.
Mr Takorn said the current ecosystem is affected by fast-changing communications technology, competition from other broadcasting platforms and especially from social media like YouTube and Facebook. The NBTC thus needs to monitor the operators closely, in terms of operation and management.
The Association of Digital TV Operators previously requested additional assistance from the government to eliminate the rental fee of broadcasting networks (which is due in January 2018); waive the remaining licence payments starting from the May 2018 payment; and allow financially ailing operators to exit the business.
The association and related groups submitted a proposal to the legal committee of the National Legislative Assembly, asking it to review the frequency allocation law and the Broadcasting Act of 2008.
Association president Suphap Kleekachai said the hour is too late and it's useless to point fingers of blame, so the best course is to move forward with real solutions.
"Section 44 is the most proper shortcut to help digital TV operator survive," he said, adding that failures in the terrestrial digital TV business are mainly due to oversupply caused by too many TV channels.
A six-month delay in distribution of free set-top boxes to viewers and the impractical capacity of multiplexer network also led to problems.
Sikares Sirakan, an independent academic covering digital and new media, said the time has come to deliver proper measures to terminate the problem, especially within the next six months or before this coming May, which is the timeline for the remaining licence payment for 2018.
"I did not agree with the digital TV licences in 2014, but we have walked too far now and the chronic problem needs to be resolved," Mr Sikares said.
He said the auction design of digital TV licences was done incorrectly, in terms of both number of licenses and types of licences.
In a related matter, Advanced Info Service (AIS) and True Move, the two winners of 4G licences on the 900-megahertz spectrum in 2015, have jointly asked the government to invoke Section 44 to allow them to extend the term of their licence payment in 2019, when each company has to make a final 60-billion-baht payment to the state.
The NCPO asked the opinion of the NBTC about the requirements of AIS and True Move. The NBTC listed the issue as an agenda item for the NBTC's board meeting on Wednesday.
Mr Takorn said the NBTC board is apt to agree with the move of the two winners of 4G licences on the 900MHz spectrum because the payment is a huge burden for the two companies and will create unwanted effects amid the 5G licence auctions planned for 2018.
"Under their existing financial burdens, it is hard for them to make a new term loan from creditors preparing for the 5G licence bid, and that will inevitably have an effect on the competitive mood of the planned auction," he said.
NBTC plans to auction one licence for 10MHz of bandwidth on the 850MHz band (upload and download) and three licences on the 1800MHz spectrum (each containing 30MHz of bandwidth for upload and download).
The reserve price for the 850MHz licence is 37.9 billion, while each licence of the 1800MHz band is priced at 37.4 billion.
The 1800- and 850MHz spectrum ranges are now operated by Total Access Communication under the concessions of state-owned enterprise CAT Telecom. The concessions expire on Sept 30 next year.