Protesters opposed to media monopolization urged the government to look into Taiwan Optical Platform’s acquisition of two cable television providers in southern Taiwan, asking if Chinese companies have invested in the deal.
About a dozen people gathered outside the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) office on Jinan Road in Taipei yesterday morning prior to an administrative hearing on the applications filed by Tainan-based HYA Cable TV and Chiayi-based Ta Yang Cable TV to change their boards’ directors, managers and controllers.
Taiwan Optical Platform purchased two cable TV systems for about NT$11.1 billion (US$348 million) earlier this year through its largest shareholder, Kaiyueh Investment Co, the NCC said.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
Kaiyueh owns 33.86 percent of Taiwan Optical, it added.
The acquisition was approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, because the deal did not involve a merger between two cable providers, which needs NCC approval.
The commission decided to hold an administrative hearing over the applications after it found that one of the retired managers of Chung Tung Cable TV, a cable provider under Taiwan Optical, is not the manager of HYA Cable TV.
Protesters accused Taiwan Optical, the largest multiple system operator in Taichung, of intending to bypass the NCC by having its largest shareholder buy the two cable providers instead.
They said that the company intended to purchase 65 percent of Eastern TV, which is owned by the Carlyle Group, for about NT$11.14 billion.
Protesters said that these deals have turned Taiwan Optical into a “media monster” and that they suspect the company is funded by Chinese investors.
New Power Party Chief Executive Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) failed to complete legislation related to media monopolization, protesters said.
Taipei City Councilor Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) of the Taiwan Solidarity Union also asked how Kaiyueh Investment, a company that has NT$450 million in capital, was able to secure an NT$11 billion bank loan, urging the government to investigate the deal.
“If media outlets are in the hands of large corporations, people lose the freedom to watch what they want on TV and news broadcasters can only report on the issues that their supervisors want them to,” he said, adding that the public should not think this acquisition has nothing to do with them.
Chen said that Taiwan Optical executive director Liao Tzu-chen (廖紫岑) had met with Beijing Gehua CATV Network Co Ltd executives and asked if the company received funding from China to acquire media outlets in Taiwan.
Taiwan Optical chairman Rocky Chien (簡森垣) defended Liao’s actions, saying that the company has met with cable television executives from around the world, not just from China.
He said that Kaiyueh is a 100 percent Taiwanese company and its management team are Taiwanese citizens.
The money for the purchase came from loans from five Taiwanese banks, Chien said.
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