The caretaker minister for the Prime Minister's Office, Newin Chidchob, said iTV and the Office of the Permanent Secretary should ask an arbitration panel to settle their differences over what penalty the broadcaster should pay the government.

Newin, who is in charge of permanent secretary Rongphol Charoenphan, met with the senior civil servant yesterday to discuss the case.

The department, which owns the broadcaster's concession, is demanding a penalty of around Bt76 billion, citing iTV's decision to reduce its news coverage without the government's consent.

iTV said it was only willing to pay Bt100 million per year and its  future is now in jeopardy.

"If they cannot solve their differences, they should seek an arbitration panel's ruling on how to calculate the fine," Newin added.

"We should not hurry. I told the permanent secretary to ask the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) what it will do if it imposes a fine on iTV and then the upper court throws out the lower court's ruling," he added.

On Monday, the OAG said the Central Administrative Court's May 9 ruling on the concession fee case of iTV had immediate effect.

The body urged the permanent secretary to demand iTV pay the fine promptly and backdate concession fees, despite iTV's pending appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court.

In May the lower court overturned a 2004 decision by an arbitration panel significantly cutting iTV's concession fee. iTV appealed to the upper court on June 8.

The lower court's decision means iTV must resume payment of the annual concession fee of 44 per cent of revenue or Bt1 billion per year, whichever is greater, to the permanent secretary's department. At present, iTV pays only 6.5 per cent of revenue or a minimum of Bt230 million, granted by the arbitration panel in 2004.

The lower court's ruling called for backdated concession fees of about Bt1.7 billion to be paid to the authorities. The ruling overruled the arbitration decision on programming requirements, which allowed iTV to adjust its proportion of prime time news programmes from 70 to 50 per cent of the schedule.

In May the court decided the arbitration panel had exceeded its authority in altering a contract between a broadcaster and the government.

ITV later claimed it had reduced its news content to 65 per cent, nowhere near the 50 per cent permitted under arbitration.

The dispute between iTV and its concession owner began when the broadcaster asked the permanent secretary for compensation, arguing it was being overcharged for its concession fee. The government refused, which led to the arbitration hearing.

The ensuing arbitration hearing reduced its concession fees and allowed the broadcaster more flexibility to adjust its programmes after 2004.