‘Must have, must carry’ rule to be scrapped after FIFA World Cup fiasco
A subcommittee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) on Thursday voted to scrap its “must have, must carry” rule for free broadcast of major sports events.
The decision will undergo a public hearing process before being proposed to the NBTC board meeting for final approval.
Acting NBTC secretary-general Trairat Viriyasirikul said the cancellation would benefit the NBTC as it will no longer have to financially support the broadcast of some international sports events.
Such broadcasts will be handled by the private sector in future, he said.
The “must have, must carry rule” mandated free TV broadcast of seven major sports competitions – the FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, SEA Games, Asian Games, Asian Para Games, and Asean Para Games.
A source said NBTC’s move to scrap its own rule would prevent distortion of the market, as rights owners tend to inflate licence fees if they know that broadcast is mandated by a telecom agency.
The rule attracted public criticism last year when the NBTC contributed 600 million baht so the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) could purchase rights to broadcast the 2022 Fifa World Cup for 1.4 billion baht.
Critics asked why taxpayers’ money was being used to televise a tournament that the Thailand national team was not even part of.
The issue escalated when NBTC later sued SAT to get its money back after the broadcast licence was handed to a major sponsor, meaning some TV channels were unable to broadcast all the World Cup matches live.
The case is now being considered by the Central Administrative Court.
