SLC’s NMG deal found to violate rules of auction
The Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has finally reached a conclusion on the share purchase of Nation Multimedia Group (NMG) by Solution Corner (1998) or SLC, saying the deal is in violation of regulations governing the digital TV licence auction.
The conclusion will be submitted to the NBTC board to make a decision on the matter, a source familiar with the investigation said yesterday.
MAI-listed SLC late last year bought a 12.27% stake in SET-listed NMG, which owns Nation TV and Now TV via its subsidiaries Nation Broadcasting Corporation and NBC Next Vision Plc, respectively.
SLC’s subsidiary Spring News Corporation operates the Spring News channel.
“After two months of investigation, the deal was found to be in violation of the auction rules,” the source said.
“If the NBTC board agrees that the deal is against the auction’s rules, SLC may have to reduce its shareholding stake in NMG to no more than 10%, down from the current 12.27%,” the source said.
To prevent media dominance, the digital TV auction rules stipulate bidders cannot hold more than 10% of the shares in other companies joining the bidding.
The rules also stipulate digital TV owners can hold only one channel in each category.
The conclusion was made by the broadcasting subcommittee together with Chulalongkorn University’s economics faculty and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The source said the report could clearly see SLC and NMG had a mutual interest in operating the news channels, violating auction rules.
Sombat Leelapatta, the NBTC’s acting deputy secretary-general, said the regulator’s five-commissioner broadcasting panel had not finalised the case yet.
This is because one commissioner, Lt Gen Peerapong Manakij, did not cast a vote at the last meeting.
Lt Gen Peerapong said he wanted to scrutinise the details before making a decision.
This put the voting result from the last meeting at 2:2.
The broadcasting panel expects to vote on the case at a meeting to be held in the next two weeks.
Thawatchai Jittrapanun, the NBTC member responsible for competitiveness, said a 10% shareholding was considered to be a “significant influence” when voting for major corporate decisions.