November 11, 2014
– PLANNED MERGERS between major broadcasters must now be approved by the broadcasting regulator in an attempt to prevent market domination.
The resolution came out of a meeting of the broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) on November 10, 2014.
NBTC member Supinya Klangnarong said the committee had approved a draft rule governing acquisitions and mergers, cross-holdings and market domination in radio and TV broadcasting.
She said the regulation aimed to protect consumers from unfair competition as a result of two major players in the same industry merging to dominate a market. It would cover radio, free television and subscription-based TV.
After the draft is approved by her subcommittee tomorrow, the 10 members of the NBTC will look into the details before it is finally approved and put into effect quickly, she said. “This rule will focus only on the big deals that incur between the leaders in each particular market to make sure that the deals will not result in market domination.”
Supinya highlighted the recent merger between CTH and GMM B as an example. In July, CTH – the country’s third-largest subscription-based TV operator – purchased all of GMM B’s shares. At that time, GMM B was a subsidiary of GMM Grammy. GMM B also operates a pay-TV service called GMM Z Pay TV, which is the second-largest pay-TV operator in the country. For the past two years, GMM Z Pay TV has had the fastest growth in terms of subscribers to
become the country’s second-largest subscription-based TV operator, with some 180,000 subscribers. Market leader TrueVisions has about 500,000 premium subscribers.
In a separate matter, the broadcasting committee on November 10, 2014 ordered the NBTC office to provide details on the progress of the distribution of coupons towards the purchase of digital TV receivers.
(Watchiranont Thongtep – The Nation)