The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday approved an application for a sports channel operated by Next TV, but said it would continue to review the network’s bids for news, information and entertainment channels.
INITIAL REVIEW
NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said the applications were initially reviewed by an independent committee of six media experts who are not affiliated with the NCC, two representatives from civic groups and two NCC officials.
“Members of the committee proposed to reject the applications for news, information and entertainment channels because the questions and doubts that were previously raised remain. The committee proposed only granting approval for a sports channel,” Chen said.
“However, when the NCC commissioners reviewed the committee’s proposal on [the three channels], they decided to continue discussions on the case,” Chen said.
Huang Chin-yi (黃金益), deputy director of the NCC’s operational administration department, said the commissioners’ decision to continue the review did not mean they had overturned a ruling by the independent review committee, but that the commissioners had decided not to hand down a definite ruling today.
Chen said that although Next TV had tried to make some adjustments, it has yet to meet the threshold for approval.
“This is akin to a student scoring 50 when the passing grade is 60. While the student worked hard and scored 56 this time, they still failed,” Chen said.
SEX AND VIOLENCE
Committee members continued to have doubts over the content proposed by the applicant. They were particularly concerned about its intended use of animation to portray violence and sexually oriented news, Chen said.
Furthermore, a review of the content for the news and information channels showed that the two were offering very similar programming, which raised questions about the need for two separate channels, Chen said.
Chen said that Next Media founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英) visited the NCC earlier this month for a meeting with him and other NCC officials.
“Lai talked about his ideas for Next TV and showed that he really means business,” Chen said. “I said that as long as the animation is used … [for] positive and educational purposes, the NCC would support it. Lai said he would try.”
“I also said that Taiwan is different from Hong Kong and the US. The values deemed acceptable in the US are not necessarily acceptable here,” Chen said,
Chen added that he advised Lai not to “test Taiwan’s value system.”
Next TV’s applications for a news and information channel were turned down by the NCC in December.
In March, the NCC approved the establishment of the network’s movie channel.
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