According to The Nation, the head of the broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) Natee Sukonrat confirmed this after his panel approved in principle the first draft information memorandum (IM) to govern the auction of 24 licences.
“The broadcasting committee needs to revise some details in this draft before its final approval next Monday to begin furthering the process of digitising the terrestrial TV broadcasting industry,” Natee said.
Once the IM is in place on August 27, 2013, potential bidders will be invited to apply for the spectrum auction. The broadcasting panel has set the application period for October 28-29, 2013, according to the report, and qualified bidders will be named within 45 days after the closure of applications.
The Nation added that Natee said the spectrum auction would begin within 30 days after the final lists of qualified bidders in each licence category are announced, and that the committee plans to begin the auction with the licence category that has the most intense competition, but that category has not yet been determined.
The NBTC reserves 24 digital terrestrial TV licences for commercial purpose including seven channels each for variety programmes in HD and SD. Another seven channels will be for news programmes and three for children’s programmes, all SD. Those who want to bid for HD variety channels will not be allowed to take part in the auction for SD news channels and vice versa. Each bidder can hold a maximum of three different licences, added the report.
