court fight between Mcot Plc and Sorayuth Suthassanachinda, which began six years ago, ended on Wednesday with the publicly listed firm on the losing side.
The Administrative Court ruled in favour of his Rai Som Co by ordering Mcot to pay him 55.7 million baht plus 7.5% interest within 90 days after the verdict was handed down.
The compensation was for advertising revenues from his news programmes, then on Mcot's Modernnine, which runs Channel 9. The programmes were hosted by Mr Sorayuth before he departed for Channel 3.
Rai Som filed charges against Mcot in the Administrative Court in 2006, accusing the public broadcaster of selling more advertising time than had been agreed under their revenue sharing deal, and of not paying it at the agreed rate.
The court said Mcot did not comply with the agreement signed with Rai Som in 2004, saying that the advertising time had been oversold and Rai Som must receive a refund of the 30% marketing margin that Mcot had collected.
The Mcot payments were for the news programmes aired on the channels from 2005 to 2006.
The court's order was more than an earlier estimation. Judge Anucha Hoonsawasdikul, in a statement in November last year said the damages due to Rai Som to be paid by Mcot would be around 49 million baht.
Mr Sorayuth was not at the court and sent a lawyer to represent him.
He is fighting another battle on an embezzlement charge.
Mr Sorayuth is accused of embezzling 138 million baht in shared advertising revenue from Mcot and paid Mcot staff to conceal the record of actual income.
The case is in the hands of a joint panel of the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Office of the Attorney-General to decide whether he will be indicted. The anti-graft agency found grounds of wrongdoing in September last year.
It is unknown whether the broadcaster will take the case to the Supreme Administrative Court.