The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has drafted a regulation to prevent monopolies over major sports broadcasts, the Bangkok Post reported. The “non-exclusive list” rule will ensure an equal share of rights for free-to-air and pay-TV channels to broadcast seven major sporting events and offer a fair price for sub-licensing fees. The rule will be put to a public hearing soon.

The availability of major sports programmes has been an area of debate since last year when RS Plc won the rights to the Euro 2012 football tournament. Subscribers to TrueVisions could not watch the matches on the free-TV channels carried by the pay TV operator, which differs from the practice in most countries for broadcasting major events.

According to the Bangkok Post, Deputy Secretary-General of the Television Pool of Thailand, Col Chuchart Pimpresert, said he agreed in principle with the non-exclusive list but said enforcing it could be difficult. He added that it will not be easy to settle fair sub-licensing fees as broadcasting rights holders always want to make the maximum profits.