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.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS