MCOT Chairman Surapon Nitikraipoj on Thursday insisted that the board of directors' decision to extend the broacasting concession to Bangkok Entertainment, a subsidiary of BEC World, is based on the best interest of the nation.
"We have been doing everything right, complete and based on fairness. But we have to admit that we can't undo the past mistakes," he said.
Bangkok Entertainment won the concession from MCOT, formerly Mass Communication Organisation of Thailand, for 40 years with the automatic extension for another 10 years. The original concesssion will end on March 25. There were criticisms that the company shares too little revenue with MCOT, despite the growing popularity of Channel 3.
This followed the amendment in the concession on May 2, which was approved by the then government. Under the amendment, the payment system was changed from the payment of 6.5 per cent of gross revenue to MCOT to the fixed payment of Bt1.205 billion throughout the past 20 years. In effect, MCOT received about Bt60 million per annum.
"Frankly speaking, nobody would know at that time (20 years ago) whether BEC would make a huge profit or loss. What we (MCOT board) did is to press BEC for more fairness for the remaining concession life," said Surapon.
BEC recently agreed to pay Bt405 million on a one-off basis to MCOT for the concession extension. It would also pay Bt2.02 billion fee for the 10-year period.
The Bt405 million payment was based on the combined average revenue generated by Bangkok Entertainment in the past five years and its revenue forecast over the next five years. The amount was then converted into a one-year average revenue, and Bt405 million accounts for 6.5 per cent of the sum.
