The National Communications Commission (NCC) last month rejected Taiwan Optical Platform Co’s (TOP) bid to purchase Eastern Television (ETTV), thus putting an end to a case that has received widespread attention and sparked heated discussion.
It is a shame that the commission did not make a difference when it had three perfect opportunities to do so.
From a passive perspective, the commission, as the regulatory authority of the telecom and broadcasting industries, should approve all purchase bids for media outlets that are not explicitly prohibited by the law.
From a more proactive perspective, the commission can use its administrative discretion when deciding whether to approve a purchase bid: As long as it remains within the limits of the law, it can even reject purchase bids based on reasons as vague as “to ensure better development of the telecom and broadcasting industries.”
The commission said it rejected the deal due to concerns that TOP has a decided advantage in central Taiwan, which would give it 13 channels and massive financial leverage had it taken over ETTV.
However, is this in violation of the law? No.
If the commission wanted to exercise its administrative discretion, then it could have made a major contribution by proposing an objective review standard for quantification that could be used across the board and applied to all applications, but it did not. This was the first missed opportunity.
According to the party, government and military clauses in the Radio and Television Act (廣播電視法), the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法) and the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法), political parties and elected public officials may not own shares in radio and TV outlets.
The problem is that there is no way for over-the-counter (OTC) and listed media companies, such as TOP, to know whether any of the aforementioned entities own shares in a media company.
The commission wanted media companies to become listed on the OTC or stock markets, but this could easily lead to problems in connection with the party, government and military clauses.
Had the commission used the review to propose concrete suggestions for how to resolve this problem, it would have made a major contribution, but instead it asked that the operator propose a mechanism for prevention. This was the second missed opportunity.
Finally, when reviewing media deals, the commission must consider the development of the industry and an orderly market. What is most urgently needed is to increase the proportion of locally produced content, something that the commission has been pushing for.
In the era of digital convergence, what Taiwan needs most is TV companies that can produce more and better local content to attract more viewers.
The commission could implement such a policy by using transaction reviews and license renewals to push operators to propose concrete policies to increase the proportion of locally produced content.
However, it does not seem to have expressed such ideas in connection to the ETTV deal. This was the third opportunity the commission missed to implement its policy goals.
What is done might be done, but the future brings new opportunities. When dealing with new transaction deals, the commission will still be able to promote its vision of moving the media industry forward.
Weber Lai is a professor at National Taiwan University of Arts’ Department of Radio and Television and president of the Chinese Communication Management Society.
Translated by Tu Yu-an and Perry Svensson
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday last week held a debate over the constitutionality of the death penalty. The issue of the retention or abolition of the death penalty often involves the conceptual aspects of social values and even religious philosophies. As it is written in The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the government’s policy is often a choice between the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods, and it is impossible to be perfect. Today’s controversy over the retention or abolition of the death penalty can be viewed in the same way. UNACCEPTABLE Viewing the
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused