By James Hookway and Nopparat Chaichalearmmongkol
BANGKOK--Thailand's military rulers scored an important goal in
their efforts to rally ordinary Thais to their cause Thursday after
securing a deal to broadcast all 64 World Cup soccer games on
free-to-air television networks, blocking the rights-holder's
pay-TV distribution plan.
The move enables millions of people who might otherwise have
missed many matches to view the tournament in its entirety.
The pact between the state TV regulator and media company RS
PCL, which owns the rights to show the matches in Thailand, was
finalized a few hours before the competition was scheduled to kick
off in Brazil.
It cheered many soccer-mad Thais worried about how they would
watch matches without resorting to expensive cable connections or
set-top box subscriptions. It also follows a series of similar
populist maneuvers aimed at winning public support, such as
offering free tickets for a film about an ancient Thai warrior-king
and junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha's decision to release a
self-penned song, "Returning Happiness to Thailand."
But the deal also represents a significant loss in revenue for
RS and raises questions about the way the junta appears to be
pressuring private firms to achieve its political goals three weeks
after seizing power in a coup d'état.
Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications
Commission said it would pay RS some 427 million baht, or $13
million, in compensation for allowing free-to-air broadcasters to
show all the games instead of restricting them to RS's set-top
boxes. That is far short of the 766 million baht RS had been
looking for to make up for lost sales and the loss of
advertising.
The junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order,
intervened after the regulatory commission twice lost court cases
to compel RS to air all of the tournament's 64 matches on free
channels, most recently on Wednesday. Now, more than half the games
will be shown on the army's own television station, Channel 5, with
the remainder to be broadcast on other free-to-air channels.
"The cooperation shown in this agreement reflects the power and
the unity of the people in the country," Channel 5 said in a
statement. "The people's benefit is the key thing. More than
anything else it is the goal of the NCPO to create happiness among
Thai people in every possible way."
RS, a major media firm here that produces everything from music
and soap operas to popular movies such as "Bangkok Loco" and
"Killer Tattoo," has fared less well. Its stock prices has fallen
4% to 9.10 baht a share since the start of the week.
"The intention to allow Thais to freely watch all World Cup
matches is good, but it appears impossible to make the process by
which it is done fair for everyone," said Dithanop Wattanavekin, a
securities analyst at KKTrade Securities in Bangkok.
He pointed out that RS will be unlikely to meet its sales
targets for set-top boxes allowing subscribers to tune in to watch
the games. RS has sold more than 300,000 of the devices and aimed
to sell one million units in all. It also anticipated charging
restaurants and bars a separate fee to air the games, which
expected to bring in nearly $10 million.
The company also has said it expected earn another $20 million
from advertising over the course of the monthlong tournament.
Ong-art Singlumpong, who runs RS's television operations, said
the revenue generated by the deal should be enough to offset the
company's losses. "The main benefit is that it will make the Thai
people very happy," he said at a news conference.
But persons familiar with the firm's management say executives
are unhappy with the way the company has been treated. The army
also criticized the company Thursday after the broadcast agreement
was finalized. "RS seems to put the own interests ahead of the
majority of the Thai people's interests," said Col. Weerachon
Sukondhapatipak, a spokesman for the military government.
The World Cup deal might not be the only example of Thai
authorities exerting pressure on the private businesses to toe the
junta's line.
Entrepreneurs close to billionaire former leader Thaksin
Shinawatra, who was ousted in a previous coup in 2006, and his
sister, former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, were called in
for questioning shortly after the latest coup. Thailand's
telecommunications regulator also said it would investigate the
foreign shareholding structures of the country's largest cellular
providers after Norway's Telenor said regulators had ordered it to
briefly block access to Facebook last month via its local
affiliate, cellular company Total Access Communications PCL, or
DTAC.
In a statement released May 28, Telenor said it "believes in
open communications and regrets the consequences this might have
had for the people of Thailand."
The NBTC denied instructing Telenor to restrict access to
Facebook during a widespread, hourlong outage of the
social-networking site. But the regulator's vice chairman, Col.
Settapong Malisuwan, said the phone company would be investigated
to ensure Telenor didn't own more than the legal shareholding limit
of 49% ahead of an auction for 4G licenses due later this year.
Telenor, which owns around 42% of DTAC, didn't respond to
requests for comment.
Sachin Mittal, a telecommunications analyst at DBS Bank in
Singapore, said that if Thailand were to block DTAC or other
foreign-invested telecoms firms from bidding for a 4G license, it
would be inconsistent with how regulators have treated
foreign-invested companies in the past.
"It seems like an empty threat," Mr. Sachin said, noting that
much of the selling of Thai telecoms stocks might also be
attributable to profit-taking after recent gains. "But if it does
happen there would be a complete loss of confidence."
Wilawan Watcharasakwet and Jake Maxwell Watts contributed to
this article.
Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com and Nopparat
Chaichalearmmongkol at nopparat.chaichalearmmongkol@wsj.com
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