INDUSTRY UPDATE Media - Broadcasters Wednesday, December 11, 2013 All 41 DTTV applications qualified Raweenuch Piyakriengkai What’s new? On December 9, 2013, The National Broadcasting and (66-2) 949-1002 Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) announced that all 41 applications from the
[email protected] 29 companies taking part in the auction for 24 commercial digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) licenses qualified. The greatest demand is for SD (standard definition) variety channels, for which there are 16 applications; there are six applications for children's channels, 10 for news channels, and nine for high-definition (HD) variety channels. (Source: Bangkok Post, December 10, 2013) What’s next? The NBTC will officially announce the qualified bidders on December 12. According to the information memorandum, the auction for the 24 commercial DTTV licenses will take place 30 days after the announcement, which would put it at no later than January 11, 2014. On December 16 the NBTC will officially announce venue, date and auction sequence. The NBTC has prepared three possible scenarios for the auction. #1: The auction for all four license categories will be held on the same day. #2: It will hold two auctions, each one for two categories. #3: It will hold four separate auctions, one for each category. However, Col. Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the NBTC's broadcasting committee, said the auctions for all four categories (HD variety, SD variety, news and children's channels) will most likely be held on the same day. The NBTC will conduct mock auctions on December 18 for the media and then December 19-20 for bidders at CAT Telecom's headquarters.