Controversies of 2012
More than 10 million households in Thailand including two million subscribers of TrueVisions were left staring at blank screens during the Euro 2012 football tournament this year due to a broadcasting dispute.
GMM Grammy bought the rights from the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) to broadcast the popular tournament, requiring viewers to buy a dedicated 1,590-baht set-top box.
Grammy also sublicensed broadcast rights to Channel 3, Channel 5 and Modernine TV on a revenue-sharing basis.
Meanwhile, the country's biggest pay-TV operator, TrueVisions, which failed to secure rights to Euro 2012, discovered that even though it rebroadcasts free TV channels _ including Channel 3, Channel 5 and Modernine TV _ Grammy would not allow it to show the football.
This was when the trouble started. Subscribers were angry because even though they had paid for a service that included the free TV channels, they could not watch Euro 2012.
Grammy and TrueVisions tried to negotiate a deal, but the latter took the view since the tournament was on free TV, everyone should have the right to watch it unrestricted.
But Grammy and free TV said they were not restricting analogue TV viewership to which everyone has access, but they had no responsibility for digital TV.
Grammy reasoned it had sublicensed the rights to free TV, so anyone else must negotiate case by case _ effectively saying TrueVisions must come to a separate deal.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said it could not touch licensing agreements between private companies. The regulator is only responsible for consumers' rights.
The unsettled dispute left millions of frustrated fans demanding to know why they could not watch the tournament.
Yet nobody was in the wrong in this dispute _ there were no clear rules governing the country's new digital TV industry.
But the viewers were the big losers.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/12/31/tv-dispute-blacks-out-footie-fans/
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