Lackadaisical NBTC under fire as Thai digital TV reaches breaking point
Stakeholders in Thailand’s mass media industry have voiced concern over mounting risks facing terrestrial television stations and are accusing the state regulator of dereliction of duty.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has been accused of delaying and stalling the creation and issuance of a master plan and roadmap for the digital TV industry even though the clock is ticking and the current operating licenses will expire in 2029.
Led by Suparp Khleekajai, chairman of the Association of Digital Television Broadcasting Thailand (ADTEB), industry representatives submitted a letter to the NBTC on May 26, demanding clarity by June 30 regarding the master plan to handle the expiry of digital TV licenses. They asked the government for assistance and are also planning to petition Parliament later this month.
They fear mass layoffs and serious impacts on the public’s right to information if the NBTC continues to withhold the digital television roadmap.
Roadmap, master plan off the agenda
The regulator is facing criticism even from within. An NBTC commissioner, Prof Pirongrong Ramasoota, has publicly expressed her frustration.
Pirongrong, who specializes in television broadcasting, posted an open letter explaining the delays behind the master plan and roadmap to deal with the expiry of licenses in 2029.
She revealed that the public hearing for the third Master Plan Draft (2026–2030) was completed back in October 2025. The summary of the results was submitted to be included in the NBTC board meeting agenda on January 14, 2026. However, for three months this specific agenda item was never taken up.
Pirongrong’s statement raised a series of points.
• Repeated follow-ups ignored
“Despite writing an urgent request to the NBTC chairman every single week, and despite representatives from relevant industry sectors periodically submitting inquiries, nothing changed.”
• Chairman’s gatekeeping power
Under current regulations, only the chairman has the authority to approve items for the meeting agenda or to reorder them for priority consideration.
• Repeated delays
The item finally made it to the agenda on April 8, but the review was left unfinished. It was deferred to the next meeting, only to be continually sidelined by other inserted agendas. Even during the most recent meeting on May 26, it was not considered.
The roadmap to prepare for the end of digital TV licenses—which has been in development since 2024—has met the same fate as the master plan, as both items have been bundled together on the agenda.
• Poor record of the regulator
Critics have slammed the NBTC’s poor record, pointing to its inaction during the controversial 2023 merger of two of Thailand’s three main telecom operators. The regulator claimed at the time that it did not have the authority to intervene.
“Due to the merger of True and DTAC, now there is no competition in telecommunication resulting in disadvantage to consumers who are facing high fees for internet and mobile phone services with poorer service,” says Sakon Varanyuwatana, former chairman of Thailand’s Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC).
He argues that there is a structural flaw known as “state capture” in the NBTC and other independent regulators like the OTCC.
The selection process for recruiting commissioners, he notes, has been heavily influenced by large businesses and politicians with considerable interests in the industry, meaning most commissioners do not represent the public interest.
“Parliament needs to revise laws and regulations governing NBTC,” according to Sakon.
Mana Treelayapewat, former dean of the School of Communication Arts at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, shares a similar view. He adds that commissioners struggle to work together effectively and to jointly push forward initiatives due to multiple flaws in the organization’s structure.
“The NBTC is not only a failure in regulating the digital TV area, but also in its other duties, such as supervising radio broadcasting,” says Mana.
• Unfair competition from global players
Local media operators have long called on the NBTC and other regulators to address the impact of global internet platforms such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, TikTok and others, which have aggressively entered media markets and successfully diverted advertising spending away from traditional local media firms. The problem is not unique to Thailand.
Market research companyEmarketerforecasts that Google, Meta and Amazon will together control 62.3 per cent of the global digital advertising market in 2026.
Critics have urged the NBTC to regulate Over-the-Top (OTT) internet media platforms by learning from international actions.
For instance, the European Union has adopted a rule requiring major OTT and video-on-demand platforms to ensure at least 30 per cent of their catalog consists of “European works” (local/regional content). This applies to global OTT/subscription video-on-demand platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ when they target EU audiences.
In March 2026, major European broadcasting associations sent a joint letter to the European Commission asking it, under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), to designate major connected TV, smart TV operating systems and virtual assistants as gatekeepers.
European broadcasters argue that a small number of operators can “control access to audiences and content distribution”, and therefore want DMA gatekeeper obligations—fairness, non‑discrimination, contestability, prominence rules, etc—applied to these intermediaries.
Heading for a slow collapse?
A research study at Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) has warned that the Thai television industry is facing a “slow collapse” — a gradual and quiet decline. The study estimates a 75 per cent chance of this worst‑case outcome if all parties continue to operate as usual until broadcasting licenses expire in 2029 (BE 2572).
The study found that the Thai TV industry is confronting several crises.
● Continuous decline in revenue, forcing operators to cut production costs.
● Drop in content quality, leading to a “Quality Death Spiral”.
● Disappearance of essential informative programs, which are being replaced by dramatic news and home-shopping shows.
● Society’s lack of a mainstream media outlet that can be relied upon and used to verify facts.
● Children and youth have virtually no programs to watch, as the proportion of children’s programming has vanished from the screen.
If current trends continue, the study warns that Thai TV could be forced to drastically downsize, reducing the number of stations to just 6–8 truly strong channels, in a “survival of the fittest” scenario.
The study also points to growing concerns that the explosion of social media and global internet platforms has transformed the Thai TV industry, especially the quality of news content, which increasingly follows social media trends and algorithms that focus on reach and engagement rather than accurate, reliable and non‑biased information.