The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it has launched a formal investigation into Kbro Co’s plan to remove two Formosa TV (FTV) channels from the lineups of 19 cable systems, adding that it would not allow unspoken rules between cable operators to disrupt fair competition.
The two channels, FTV Taiwan and Follow Me TV, are digital channels that can be watched by cable TV subscribers for free, the commission said.
Kbro, an affiliate of the Fubon Group, which owns Taiwan Mobile, earlier this month announced that it would remove the two channels from its channel lineup.
FTV News at the beginning of this month began broadcasting on Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand (MOD) service, commission data showed.
Industry experts have interpreted Kbro’s move as retaliation against FTV for airing its programming on the platforms of Kbro and Chunghwa Telecom, despite being fully aware that the two are in the middle of fierce competition with each other.
NCC spokesman Weng Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said that by law, cable system operators are required to notify the commission if they need to make adjustments to digital channels offered to cable TV subscribers for free, adding that the agency keeps such notifications for its records.
“However, Kbro announcing a plan to remove two FTV channels soon after FTV launched its news channel on the MOD system is an almost perfect coincidence,” Weng said.
The commission found that records of negotiations between Kbro and FTV over the two channels were incomplete, as they lacked a signature from FTV providing its agreement to the terms of the talks, he said, adding that the agency launched the investigation to determine whether either party had engaged in acts that would impede fair competition and disrupt the market.
“We will not tolerate the practice of unspoken rules among market players that would hurt the interests of consumers,” Weng said, adding that the commission would handle the case based on the media laws it is charged with enforcing.
He reiterated that the nation early this year began to enforce amendments to three media laws, which list MOD and cable systems as broadcasting platforms, saying that their operators must ensure that all channels have equal access to their platforms and that they are forbidden from boycotting a channel for broadcasting content on competing platforms.
“Following the investigation, we will also examine the conditional clauses attached to a ruling on Dafu Media’s acquisition of Kbro, in which Dafu Media vowed to strictly adhere to the principle of equal access for all channels,” Weng said.
Dafu Media is the firm created by Fubon Group to acquire Kbro.
The commission said that Kbro has not taken the two channels off the air, adding that Kbro and FTV have been asked to submit written statements about the dispute.
Weng also commented on Kbro’s announcement last week that it would cease operating as an agent of different channels, considering that being an agent allows it to negotiate on content authorization fees with other cable system owners on behalf of the TV channels.
“We will monitor whether multiple system operators such as Kbro have forced channels to accept unreasonable content authorization fees and unfair distribution of profits,” he said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS