Court backs Thai TV Co in licence row

The Supreme Administrative Court has ruled in favour of cash-strapped Thai TV Co by accepting its lawsuit against a broadcasting regulator’s order suspending its two digital TV licences in late 2015.

The court’s ruling overturns the Central Administrative Court’s ruling that previously dismissed the lawsuit filed by the operator.

Thai TV filed the lawsuit against the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) order in November 2015 suspending its digital TV licences for Loca children’s and Thai TV news channels, asking the court to nullify the order.

According to the lawsuit, Thai TV said the NBTC’s order hurt the company’s reputation and caused it damage. The company also requested the court order NBTC to pay compensation to Thai TV.

The court said the licence suspensions could be interpreted as the company refusing to comply with regulations that later led to its licence revocation. As a result, the company suffered from the NBTC’s order and had the right to file the lawsuit, the court said.

Regarding the compensation request, the court said the company can seek compensation from the NBTC office but not from its commissioners.

Thai TV’s two channel licences were revoked on Feb 4 this year. The NBTC had pressured Thai TV to pay its remaining auction fees and interest totalling 1.78 billion baht by March 13, but the company did not respond.

The payment was to include the overdue second instalment of auction fees of 288 million baht.

The NBTC claims Thai TV still has to pay its 2% annual licence fee even with its licences revoked. The company has not paid it since last year.

Thai TV said it faced a loss of 1 billion baht for running the two digital TV channels. It blamed the NBTC for failing to facilitate a smooth transition to digital TV.