The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday stepped up efforts to settle a dispute between Formosa TV (FTV) and cable system operators, ordering the two sides to complete negotiations on content authorization fees by Monday.
Following previous rounds of negotiations arbitrated by the commission, Formosa TV had agreed to give Kbro Corp, TWM Broadband and Taiwan Broadband Communication (TBC) temporary authorization to broadcast the network’s content, which expires on Monday.
Kbro, TWM Broadband and TBC are three of the five multiple-system operators in the nation.
There has been some progress in the negotiations, despite all parties having yet to reach an agreement on content authorization fees, NCC spokesman NCC Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
“Each was seeking to maximize its profits, but they all have to stay calm,” Wong said, adding that they would continue to negotiate over the terms of content authorization.
“We have made it clear that we are concerned about the interests of cable service subscribers. While they continue negotiations, cable system operators must not take down Formosa’s channels, and Formosa must not stop the transmission of broadcast signals,” Wong said.
If the interests of the subscribers are compromised because of the dispute, Formosa might face a fine of between NT$100,000 and NT$1 million (US$3,372 and US$33,715) in accordance with the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法), and cable operators could each face fines of between NT$60,000 and NT$3 million under the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法), Wong said.
The commission said that Formosa TV has been insisting that TBC pay content authorization fees for all three channels in the network during the negotiations, even though the cable system only intended to carry one of the network’s channels.
“The network did not propose any alternatives to meet TBC’s request, such as how it would charge cable operators if they only want to buy content from one channel. We will seek input from the Fair Trade Commission on whether this network’s demand of ‘coercive package licensing’ has breached the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法),” Wong said.
Meanwhile, the commission is to investigate Kbro and TBC, as they also insisted that they pay less content authorization fees to Formosa TV, because the network is also having its channels aired on Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand system.
“Cable operators should not prevent any channel from being aired on other platforms, nor should they use any illegal means to force any channel to treat platforms differently,” the commission said.
In related news, Formosa TV was fined NT$350,000 for contravening product and service placement regulations in the Radio and Television Act (廣播電視法).
Wong said that the incident happened on Feb. 20 in an episode of Formosa’s TV series The Way to Happiness (幸福來了), which was aired during prime time.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) appeared as a guest star in the episode while she was campaigning to be nominated for the Tainan mayoral election.
“We have invited independent experts to review the dialogue involving Chen in the episode. They have determined that the content has infringed Article 34 of the act by including illegally embedded marketing for Chen,” Wong said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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