Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said that under the first option, the committee would postpone outstanding payment schedules for upfront licence fees, if the government believes that this option would not affect state finances significantly.

Under NBTC rules, it must transfer all of the fees it collects from this source to the state. If the Cabinet agrees to this option, it should grant official permission to the NBTC to amend its rules, and it should do so before the fourth fee instalment is due next May.

Originally, holders of licences to broadcast on digital television channels were required to pay the upfront fee in six instalments.

Under the second option, the payment schedules would remain unchanged. However, after the broadcasting committee transfers each payment to the state, the government would instruct its agencies to allocate their public relations budgets for the 22 digital-TV channels. The total amount spent on each channel should be equal to its licence-fee instalment.

Three of the five members of the broadcasting committee approved these two options at their July 11 meeting. The resolution was in response to a request from the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office that the committee seek ways to help struggling digital-TV licence holders.

The permanent secretary’s office had looked into the matter at the request by eight digital-TV broadcasters seeking financial assistance by revising the licence-payment regime. Those stations were One 31, GMM 25, Bright TV, Nation TV, Now 26, PPTV, Thairath TV and Springnews TV.

Speaking on their behalf, Kematat Paladesh, president of Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, the operator of PPTV, said he wanted to see relief measures similar to what the government had provided for small and medium-sized enterprises by offering them debt restructuring. Both SMEs and digital-TV broadcasters are victims of the sluggish economy.

An NBTC source said that as the state had already received about 60 per cent of the total upfront licence payments of Bt50.862 billion, government finances were unlikely to suffer any impact from relief measures provided to the broadcasters.

A banking source said some digital-TV broadcasters had considered returning their licences to the broadcasting committee because of the difficulty in making a profit from the business.