On Tuesday, the Central Administrative Court ruled that the NBTC had to return Bt1.5 billion in bank guarantees, issued by Bangkok Bank, to Thai TV Co Ltd.

NBTC Broadcasting Commissioner Natee Sukonrat said that the watchdog would appeal three key issues, including the ruling that the NBTC’s granting of the digital TV broadcasting licence is amounting to a concession agreement.

Natee said that the NBTC had an objective to switch the broadcasting industry from the concession regime to a licensing one.

On the company’s complaint that the NBTC was slow and ineffective in the switch to digital broadcasting, Natee argued that the NBTC had announced to the potential licence bidders, before the start of bidding, the schedule of its network rollout plan.

The plan will cover 50 per cent of the population on the first day of broadcasting before rising to 80 per cent a year after, 90 per cent in the third year and 95 per cent the fourth year.

NBTC has evidence that it was proceeding with the switch according to its announcement. Otherwise, all broadcasters would have encountered problems, and not just one broadcaster.

He said he was not worried about the possibility that other digital TV licence holders would rush to return their licences to the NBTC as the case of Thai TV has yet to reach a conclusion.

In 2016, Thai TV filed a lawsuit to the court seeking an invalidation of the result of its bidding for two digital TV licences and to cancel a NBTC letter demanding an upfront payment of its second installment for the licence.

It also sought a court order that the NBTC return Bangkok Bank’s guarantee documents to the company.

The court found that the NBTC had failed to meet its promise as stated in its bidding prospectus and that Thai TV had the right to terminate its licence.

However, the date the company cancelled its licence came after the date the company was due to pay the second installment of the licence upfront, therefore the company had to pay the second installment .

As for the bank guarantee of the remaining installments, the third to six worth a total of Bt1.5 billion, the NBTC has to return the amount to the broadcaster.

Thai TV – the operator of Thai TV and Loca digital television channels, which went out of business after returning its licences to the NBTC – named the NBTC and its office as co-defendants in a lawsuit filed with the court in 2016.

The NBTC has granted 24 digital TV licences to bid winners, out of which 22 channels are still in operations after Thai TV recently pulled out.

The Club of Digital Terrestrial TV Operators President Suphab Kleekachai yesterday said that the court ruling had yet to set the norm as it had yet to reach finality. He added that the broadcasters expected The National Council for Peace and Order would invoke its special power under Article 44 to allow the broadcasters to postpone the remaining installment payments of the licence auction fee by another three years.