Two university faculties have issued a joint statement opposing the use of 1.6 billion baht, from the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund for Public Interest (BTFP), to buy the rights to live broadcasts of World Cup 2022 in Thailand.

The NBTC board is scheduled to consider the spending proposal from the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) at its meeting today (Wednesday).

Associate Professor Dr. Preeda Akarachantachote, dean of the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chulalongkorn University, said that the use of the fund for World Cup 2022 live broadcasts would not be in line with the objectives of the BTFP, which are to contribute to promoting the development of communications resources, research or development of broadcast media.

He noted, however, that the NBTC did allocate 240 million baht from the fund for the rights to live broadcasts of Olympic and other events in the past three years, adding that the Olympic and Asian Games are diverse sporting events catering to a wider audience in which Thailand is a participant, unlike the football World Cup.

He pointed out that the fund only has about two billion baht in reserves, according to the Isranews agency, and the use of 1.6 billion baht just for live broadcasts of an event for a limited audience, will substantially deplete the reserves.

The Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications at Thammasat University is the second contributor to the joint statement.