Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday settled its disputes with three content providers, including Taiwan Interactive Television Co (台灣互動電視), allowing it to restore the 44 “missing” channels on its multimedia-on-demand (MOD) platform.
The nation’s biggest telecom said it had renewed its contracts with Taiwan Interactive, U-Light Entertainment Technology Co Ltd (友量娛樂) and Chunghwa Digico Media Co Ltd (中華超聯) on Thursday.
Chunghwa Telecom removed 44 channels from its MOD service on July 1, mostly from Taiwan Interactive, after the three channel operators failed to agree to a new profit-sharing arrangement proposed by the telecom.
Photo: screen grab from the Chunghwa Telecom Web site
About half of the company’s 135 million MOD subscribers were affected by the service disruption.
“To safeguard the interests of our subscribers, we have been in negotiations with the three channel operators,” Chughwa Telecom said in a statement.
The company would begin broadcasting content from the three channel operators today, it said.
Chunghwa Telecom yesterday declined to disclose details about the contracts.
Based on its new rules, channel operators receive profits relative to the viewing ratings of their television programs, rather than a flat rate.
The new profit-sharing arrangement aims to give incentives to high-quality content providers, as well as improving the profitability of the MOD business, which has accumulated NT$31.5 billion (US$1.04 billion) in losses since its launch in 2004.
Chunghwa Telecom said the discounts announced on Tuesday last week would remain in place through the end of this month.
To compensate irate subscribers, the company cut the monthly charge for its Luxury Family package from NT$270 to NT$145.
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