The Central Administrative Court has ordered the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to return bank guarantees worth 1.5 billion baht to a loss-ridden digital TV operator, but it turned down the company's demand for damages.
Pantipa Sakulchai, president of Thai TV Co Ltd, filed a lawsuit against the NBTC seeking court orders nullifying the company's bids for two digital TV channels from the NBTC and revoking NBTC letters demanding it pay the licensing fees.
The company also asked the court to order the NBTC to return 16 Bangkok Bank guarantee documents, as well as 365.5 million baht in licensing fees it had already paid plus 7.5% in annual interest payments from the date the lawsuit was filed.
It also demanded the NBTC pay 713.8 million baht in damages plus an annual interest payment of 7.5%.
The court ruled the commission had failed to keep its promise as detailed in the prospectus, and Thai TV had the right to cancel the contract.
But since the contract cancellation date came after the due date for the second licensing-fee installment, Thai TV was required to pay the second instalment of 258 million baht, according to the ruling.
As for the bank guarantees for payment of the third instalment onward, the NBTC must return them to the company or repay it in cash, it said.
However, the court did not order the NBTC to pay damages to the company, reasoning that losses were a normal part of business operations.
Ms Pantipa said after the ruling that while she was satisfied with the decision, she would appeal for damages.
She was convinced she had evidence showing the damage caused to her company was the result of the NBTC's failure to comply with the prospectus.
She said the court had ordered the NBTC to return to the company the bank guarantees for the payment of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth installments worth more than 1.5 billion baht.
"I believe I'm not incompetent, weak or lacking in financial means, but what the NBTC has done did not accommodate [the business]. It even obstructed the operation and caused us losses.
"Throughout my 40 years in this business, I've never suffered losses, not a single baht," she said.
"This case affects my reputation. This fight is not for me, but for the people. Other channels are also suffering. Some [owners] are on the verge of committing suicide after their families fell apart. This is the NBTC's doing, and it's a grave sin."
Sombat Leelapata, director of the NBTC's legal office, said the regulator would appeal against the ruling within 30 days.
"The court did not take into consideration certain facts, such as the details in the prospectus on the annual rate of network expansion.
"Apart from that, Thai TV claimed the Public Relations Department's network had problems when in fact it used the network of another operator."
The NBTC called bids for 49 digital TV channels in late 2013. Bidders offered 50.9 billion baht for 24 channels -- 3.3 billion baht on average for an HD channel and 650 million baht to 2.2 billion baht for standard resolution channels, depending on content type.
Thai TV won the right to a news channel for 1.3 billion baht and a variety and children's channel for 648 million baht.
A year after the auction, several operators reported they had suffered huge losses, mainly due to high licence fees and a sea change in the TV landscape driven by the proliferation of social media and streaming services.
Some, including Thai TV, blamed it on the NBTC, which they said had failed to expand viewership and multiplex stations nationwide as planned. Only a handful of the operators showed profits.
Euajit Virojtrairat, a mass communications scholar, said the NBTC was partly to blame because it called bids for all channels without conducting adequate studies.
Ms Euajit said it was not clear how the NBTC would return the 1.5 billion baht to Thai TV as all the money should have been spent by now.