Cheng urges GIO help to keep cable sports shows

A PFP lawmaker urged government agencies to help resolve a program fee dispute between cable TV system operators and professional sports-program providers.

Legislator Tony Cheng (鄭志龍), a basketball player-turned-lawmaker, told a news conference that ESPN has threatened to withdraw from the Taiwan market as of January because local system operators have demanded a 45 percent cut in their payments to the company.

Cheng said system operators pay NT$14.5 per month for each of their subscribers to receive ESPN programming. System operators have proposed that those payments be lowered to NT$7.97 per person next year.

The proposed fee cut has drawn protests from professional sports program providers, including ESPN, Cheng said.

Noting that professional sports TV channels have played an increasingly important role in global athletic activities and the development of the sports industry, Cheng said the government should not sit idly by as a popular international provider like ESPN prepares to withdraw from the market, particularly at a time when the Cabinet is talks about doubling the local sports population within six years.

Cheng said sports TV channels can be an effective medium in helping realize the Cabinet's goal of raising the number of people who exercise regularly.

He said such companies can offer channels for broadcasting locally-organized international sports activities to TV audiences around the world, thus helping enhance the nation's visibility and profile.

Cheng said he hopes that the Government Information Office's Radio and Television Affairs Department and the Fair Trade Commission will help settle the price dispute as soon as possible.