A court on Wednesday ruled in favour of the holder of Thai broadcasting rights for the 2014 World Cup tournament, rejecting an administrative order to provide the games free on public TV.
RS International Broadcasting and Sports Management had threatened to scrap the Cup’s live broadcast entirely if the court upheld the order of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
The commission argued that the World Cup fell under its “must-have rule” that requires seven major sports events to be broadcast for free to the public.
But the Supreme Administrative Court said RS had secured the rights to the Cup in 2005, while the commission’s rule came into effect only last year.
The company has agreed to broadcast 22 of the 64 matches live on public TV, and has sub-licensed a pay-TV operator to broadcast all 64 matches on its cable and satellite platforms.
RS will also broadcast all 64 games via its own pay-TV service. It hopes to generate 650 million baht (20 million dollars) in revenue from the 2014 World Cup, mainly from sponsorships, the Bangkok Post reported.
Source : Sapa-dpa /gbm
