Cable television service subscribers could receive a seven-day trial period when the nation’s cable operators are asked to offer tiered services to their subscribers next year, National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairperson Howard Shyr (石世豪) said yesterday.
Shyr made the comment at a meeting of the Transportation Committee at the legislature in Taipei, when he was scheduled to brief committee lawmakers on the commission’s plan to require all cable operators to next year charge subscribers based on a tiered-pricing scheme.
Currently, subscribers pay a fixed monthly fee and have access to between 100 and 200 channels.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) said cable subscribers would enjoy greater freedom in their choice of TV channels through the tiered-pricing mechanism, but most people still did not know exactly what channels would be provided depending on the package they choose.
He said that when making online purchases, shoppers are given seven days to decide whether they want to return a product, and the same privilege should be given to cable service subscribers.
“Providing a trial period for cable subscribers is a good idea,” Shyr said, adding that the commission would evaluate the viability of the proposal.
The national average cable subscription fee is NT$540 per month, Shyr said.
He said that the commission wants all the operators to adopt a tiered-pricing scheme next year and provide an all-digital service to their subscribers.
Based on the commission’s plan, the channels would be divided into two packages: basic channels and “a la carte” channels.
The basic channels package would be made up of at least 11 channels, including must-carry channels, public television channels and other channels, with the price tag being capped at NT$200 per month.
Cable operators should also bundle other channels and form them into at least two groups of “a la carte” channels for subscribers to choose from, Shyr said, adding that should people subscribe to all “a la carte” channels, the fee must not exceed NT$300 per month.
The commission’s plan was questioned by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) and Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞).
Lo said that cable operators have reaped a considerable amount of profits over the years, with gross margin topping 70 to 80 percent.
The NT$200 service fee for viewing basic channels serves as a guaranteed source of revenue for the cable operators, she said.
The high rerun rate of programs is a sign of deteriorating cable content quality, Lo said, adding that consumers should have the right to choose only the channels that they want to watch.
Lo and Lee also challenged the NCC’s proposed tiered-pricing scheme, saying that there is no arbitrary rule to determine which channels should be categorized as “basic channels.”
They said that cable operators would likely bundle two or three popular channels with several other less-popular ones and sell them as a package.
In related news, DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) has proposed an amendment to three media regulations, with party legislative caucuses to negotiate the proposal before the legislative session ends next week.
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