New TV provider Cable Thai Holding (CTH), which has the Thai broadcasting rights for the English Premier League (EPL), is suing Apple for selling applications through its App Store that enable people to view the matches on mobile devices.
The company has filed lawsuits against Apple Inc, Apple South Asia (Thailand) and its executive with the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court and the Criminal Court, demanding compensation of 100 million baht.
CTH is also suing the developer of the app, known as "Sport Channel", in the Criminal Court.
Lawyer Yindee Limpivet, who is handling the filing of the court case, said the company had earlier sent a letter to Apple South Asia (Thailand) demanding that it remove the app from its store. Apple did not reply, he said.
CTH is taking legal action against Apple for selling applications through its App Store that enable people to view English Premier League matches on mobile devices.
The company therefore is accusing Apple of wrongfully allowing the sale of an app that enables the violation of CTH's sole broadcast rights to EPL games in Thailand.
He said this would cause huge damage to CTH, which invested a significant amount of money to acquire the broadcast rights.
Lawyer Paiboon Amornpinyokiat, also working for CTH, said the "Sport Channel" app has been on the top paid application for almost two months, and allows buyers to view the football matches on iPhones and iPads and using iPods.
A quick search on the Apple App Store on iPad on Thursday afternoon showed the Sport Channel HD available for US$29.99, or a bit over 900 baht. It was developed by Somsak Boonpetch, who advertises it as an application that gathers all online sport channels.
The case has been listed in the Criminal Court for Nov 18 and in the Civil Court for Dec 23. The maximum imprisonment for this type of intellectual property violation is four years.
CTH said the company is also monitoring for other individuals or businesses who illegally broadcast or adapt the signal of the EPL football matches for commercial purposes. The company will suspend their access to the signal immediately without prior notification.
All broadcast rights violators would be sued, Mr Yindee said.
He said the company is cooperating with the Department of Special Investigation. Several broadcast rights violators had been identified. The company was preparing legal action against them.
CTH is a newly established cable TV firm, set up in 2012. The company is a joint investment between Wichai Thongtang, the veteran investor, and Vachara Vacharaphol, the chief executive of Trend VG3, who each have a 25% stake in CTH.
Mr Vachara is the third generation of the family that owns Thai Rath, the biggest selling newspaper in Thailand.
On Jan 8, CTH signed an agreement with Bangkok Bank for a 14 billion baht loan to finance the acquisition of EPL rights for three seasons.
Of that, 10 billion baht was for acquiring EPL content, and the rest to upgrade CTH's fibre-optic network. It also broadcasts via satellite.
CTH chairman Wichai Thongtang said the loan will have a more than a three-year repayment period, given that the EPL season rights run until mid-2016.
With EPL broadcast rights in hand, CTH expects its cable and satellite TV subscriptions to double to seven million households nationwide over the next three years. The firm sees EPL football as an avenue for becoming the ruling pay-TV broadcaster, overtaking market leader TrueVisions.
Sport Channel HD application