The government is tightening its grip on the cable-TV industry as part of its broader plans to push ahead with digital television, the Government Information Office (GIO) said yesterday.
"To enhance the industry, we'll revoke the licenses of cable program-mers with financial or quality issues when they apply for renewal," GIO Director-General Lin Chia-lung (
Eighty out of the 135 programmers -- more than 60 percent -- have their licenses up for renewal next year. The licenses are good for six years.
"We're strengthening the oversight mechanism. But we are not restricting new players from entering the crowded cable TV market," Lin said.
His remarks came in response to a report yesterday in the Financial Times that said the GIO would force change by denying new licenses to operators who refused to comply with the plan to push for digitalization.
According to the GIO, the bandwidth of cable systems allows only 90 channels to offer good reception.
However, Lin said the GIO has not set a goal for approving or denying licenses in order to speed up the digitalization process.
The GIO does not plan to force cable channel operators to switch to digital signals for program delivery, but will let market forces lead the way, Lin said.
According to government statistics, there are 6 million cable TV subscribers -- a penetration rate of 85 percent. China Network Systems Co -- a joint venture between the Koos Group and Star TV Eastern Multimedia Corp -- and Taiwan Broadband Corp, which is controlled by US private equity firm Carlyle Group, are the nation's largest multi-services operators.
For the smaller territorial television companies, in which the government has a stake, the government is helping them finance the transition to digital programming to help the industry keep pace with global trends.
The government hopes cable TV programmers will follow suit, Lin said.
The government is scheduled to terminate analogue broadcasting by the end of 2006.
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