Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has used his special powers to extend the deadline for digital TV licence fee payments due to tough competition in the industry and the sluggish economy.
Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Tuesday Gen Prayut, in his capacity as the chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), exercised Section 44 of the interim constitution to relieve the payment burden for digital TV operators.
Under the NCPO's order on Tuesday, digital TV operators are allowed to pay in instalments their fourth, fifth and sixth payments for the auction fees. Each of the three payments can be paid in two instalments over two years on condition that they pay 1.5% annual interest.
"TV operators won the licences at high prices but unfavourable economic circumstances have put them in a difficult position and they lost track of their business plans," Lt Gen Sansern said.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) granted 24 digital TV channel licences to 17 winning bidders in April 2014. The winners must altogether pay 50.9 billion baht in auction fees in six years.
The fourth payment was originally set next May, with the fifth in May 2018 and the last in May 2019.
Gen Prayut also ordered the NBTC to subsidise digital TV operators' costs for transmitting the programme signals to satellite and cable TV platforms for three years, with the subsidy amounting to 875 million baht a year.
The operators entered the business with high hopes but three years on several of them are struggling to stay afloat. They blame the NBTC for failing to keep its side of the bargain and for not doing enough to promote digital TV in all areas in the country as planned.
Besides, Gen Prayut put off for five years the deadline for 21 state agencies and enterprises to return 537 radio spectrum ranges to the NBTC for reallocation.
"The NCPO views that the situation has considerably changed so the April 2017 licence expiry date should be postponed by another five years," Lt Gen Sansern said.