"As of this morning, we're all jobless," says Pollapruet Ruangcharas, 37, the deputy leader of iTV's labour union. Thursday was the last working day for 1,010 employees of iTV Plc, which had its broadcasting licence revoked by the government after the 10-year-old station could not afford to pay over Bt100 billion in concession fees and fines.

Yet, Pollapruet, who was formerly an editor in charge of all provincial news, says many former staff members, including about 300 reporters and cameramen, remain undaunted because the government has honoured its pledge to keep the station continuously on the air following Tuesday's change-over.

Legally, iTV, which was formerly majority-owned by ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's family and then sold off to Singapore's Temasek Group in 2006 along with other units of Shin Corp, is now owned by the state and falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Relations Department (PRD). The PRD has been given an initial budget of Bt90 million to help manage the station during this transitional period.

"We badly need money to keep going since iTV Plc, the previous operator, officially cut off its finances with the station as of Thursday morning. Now there is no company money even for petrol for reporters and cameramen to cover news events. As a result, we've resorted to an employees' contingency fund, which has about Bt800,000 for immediate expenses," says Pollapruet, who joined the station nine years ago.

The government has renamed the station TITV, which stands for Thailand Independent Television. The station was founded in the 1990s with the objective of providing free, politically independent news and quality content to the general public. However, this original objective was not commercially viable and the station was later taken over by the Shinawatra family.

During the tenure of ex-premier Thaksin, who was ousted in the September 19 coup, iTV's programming was amended to provide more air time for more profitable entertainment shows and related content. According to the original terms and conditions, the station was supposed to devote 70 per cent of its air time to news and other quality content, with the rest of the allocated to entertainment and related content.

The breach of contract later proved to be highly costly for the station, as the PM's Office, following the coup, insisted that the station pay concession fees totalling Bt2.2 billion plus a massive fine of Bt100 million per day, which totalled more than 98 billion.

The Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favour of the government as far as the breach of contract was concerned.

Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan, the PM's Office Minister, has said the government plans to reform all three state-owned national TV networks, namely, TITV, Channel 11 and Channel 9, once the National Broadcasting Commission is operational.

Pollapruet, who holds an accounting degree from Bangkok University and a master's of business administration, says there are probably two broad models to revitalise the former iTV. "First, the government may give the original independent TV model another try by inviting new bids from the private sector to run the station under more practical terms and conditions.

"We should learn from past mistakes in the sense that it's not commercially viable for an entity to pay a very high amount of annual fees to the government while minimising the ratio of highly-lucrative entertainment and related contents. In iTV's case, the annual concession fee was Bt1.2 billion, the highest rate in the industry. Channel 7, also privately run, currently pays an annual concession fee of only Bt350 million, even though it has the second-most expensive concession.

"If we still wanted to have an independent TV network, the government should expect significantly less financial returns from the operator. In addition, the terms of reference for bidding must specify terms and conditions to ensure that the independence of editorial staff is guaranteed. For instance, there should be an editorial board whose members consist of widely respected public figures who can help protect and defend editorial integrity.

"This model means that the government will still have some income on the concession, while upholding the original objective of providing an independent free TV service to the public. Another model is to turn TITV into what's called a public TV network similar to Channel 11. This means the station will need a huge budget from the state.

"In my opinion, the BBC or similar models in which viewers are charged an annual subscription fee will not work here, so the government will have to provide a 100 per cent subsidy. By the way, we already have the state-owned Channel 11 operating like a public TV network so there shouldn't be another one. I hope the Surayud government will make its final decision on the long-term future of TITV before its tenure expires at the year's end.

"This matter shouldn't be left to the succeeding government because the current administration terminated the concession. I still believe that General Surayud Chulanont, the interim premier, has a good intention for iTV staff. Other than this, politics is politics," says Pollapruet.

nop1122@yahoo.com