Vice Chair of SEA Games calls for Cambodia to reduce broadcast fees for Thailand

In the ongoing dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, Chaipak Siriwat Vice Chairman of the SEA Games Federation council has asked for a reduction in the 28 million Baht ($800,000) fee to broadcast the SEA Games.

According to reports in Thai and Khmer media Thailand has again asked Cambodia to lower the fees claiming that they are “too high”. Cambodia has countered that the fees are valid and were assessed based on market value to Thailand.

What is the Thai issue?

The row initially started on February 26th when Thailand first raised concerns about the price of the games, with their argument being that in previous years hosts had simply charged a token amount, quoting the $30,000 dollars that Vietnam charged in 2021.

To read about the initial argument click here

The second main issue for Thailand is that the Southeast Asian games are on the so-called “Must Have” list which means that they must be broadcast for free, meaning that the Thai sports authority has needed to reach out for funding from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

Despite the anger about the pricing from the Thai side other countries, such as Vietnam have agreed on a price structure for the SEA Games. As we recently reported  Vietnamese broadcaster VTCab recently signed on as the first major broadcaster to have agreed a deal to cover the 2023 Cambodia games.

You can read about that Dela here

To add further to the Thai woes, Chaipak who is also vice president of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand, made unvaried allegations the council of the SEA Games Federation has agreed to amend their charter in order to limit the amount of sports a host country could include, claiming it gave an undue advantage.

The two arguments follow on from the biggest issue of the day, that of whether Thailand will boycott the “Kun Khmer” part of the games.

In our humble view, the land of smiles should do just that and do their talking at the games….