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Published on December 19, 2007

TITV staff and representatives from production houses submitted an open letter to the prime minister yesterday asking for a clear direction over the transition of TITV from an independent station to a public television station.

They also submitted a letter to the Ombudsman, saying that transferring TITV assets amid the on-going dispute between iTV Plc and the PM's Office's permanent secretary might be against the Constitution, which stipulates that the authority must provide legal protection for all individual assets.

All stakeholders at TITV, including the 1,000 staff working at the station, as well as program producers and advertising agencies expressed frustration yesterday over the government plan, which would bar ads once TITV becomes a public station.

Staff also wondered if their employment contracts would end on January 1, 2008 when the transition takes effect.

"There are only 13 days left before TITV will be immediately converted into a public TV station or Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS), scheduled for the first of January. However, both TITV staff and program producers have yet to be told about their future," well-known producer Traipop Limprapat said.

Traipop, who is also the CEO of Born and Associates, said the authorities so far had no clear direction about changing TITV into a public TV station and the move had hit over 100 producers that deal with the station.

"Not only the 1,000 TITV staff, but more than 30,000 people working with production houses and their family members have been affected by the lack of proper direction towards the independent TV station," Traipop said.

Right now sales staff at those production houses could not sell advertising airtime to media agencies.

"We are constantly asked by those media agencies, which cannot air their commercials in our timeslots, about the future of TITV, which will be converted to a public TV station on January 1. However, we cannot inform them, as we ourselves don't know anything about the future of TITV. Even staff at the station don't know anything about their future," he said.

"What we producers want from the authorities is to give us a chance to do business. Don't kill us this way," he added.

Traipop said many producers had a stock of programs until mid-January or February and the immediate switch to a public TV station would cost them hundreds of millions of baht.

"For normal business practice, to end a contract with program producers, they should be informed about this by TV stations two to three months earlier."

Traipop said TITV needed at least a year for the transition to a public station, as many things would have to be done.

This included setting up a committee and finding managers to run the station, finding the right location, and organising all broadcasting equipment and assets to run the station. At present the public TV station does not even have a goal or a mission spelt out yet.

Nophorn Bhongsvej, deputy station director at TITV, said so far there was no official order from the authorities to change TITV into a public TV station.

"Myself and the management team are now quite confused. But I have been unofficially informed by the Public Relations Department that we should carry on running the independent TV station and continue all employment contracts for another three months - if there is no official order made by the authorities on the transition of TITV." Nophorn said TITV had achieved total revenues of Bt1.1 billion since being overseen by the Public Relations Department from March this year. The station also posted Bt450 million in profit (excluding Bt200 million in depreciation from a revaluation of assets).

Chulayuth Hiranyavasit, head of the Permanent Secretary's Office, admitted there were growing concerns over the transition, as time was running out.

"What we are trying to do is to urgently appoint a special committee to handle the transition and the establishment of Thailand's first public TV station," he said.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation