Protecting viewers’ rights
More than 750,000 cable television subscribers in Taoyuan, Taichung and Hsinchu and Miaoli counties have been deprived of their viewing rights since Friday last week, when cable TV providers under the umbrella of Taiwan Broadcasting Communications ceased carrying one of Formosa Television’s news channels without prior warning.
Do viewers have to put up with cable system providers breaking up channel allocations as they see fit? Do they really have no other choice, as has long been the case? If they have to wait for the National Communications Commission to impose a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$1 million (US$3,348 to US$33,476), it would take too long to be of any use.
Some subscribers are so infuriated that they say they will cancel their subscriptions, and rightly so. Canceling one’s subscription, breaking the chains and choosing digital convergence media is a great way for consumers to strike back from a disadvantageous position.
Netflix, the US’ biggest video streaming platform, now has more subscribers than cable television service providers, marking a new milestone in the rivalry between video streaming and traditional television channels.
This year, Netflix expects its subscribers to generate US$15 billion in annual revenue.
From the Netflix tide, one can foresee that Taiwan’s cable television services are not irreplaceable and will not stay dominant forever.
In Taiwan the multimedia on demand (MOD) service is a digital convergence platform that is provided via the Internet. MOD has broken free of monopoly control, and people can use it to watch FTV, NextTV and several other news channels.
It is like the end of the ban on independent newspapers that was imposed under martial law. When the ban was lifted, readers were no longer restricted to reading the three major papers, and this enabled people to broaden their horizons.
There are about 5.22 million cable television subscribers and 5.71 million broadband Internet accounts in Taiwan, but compared with watching traditional cable television, added-value digital convergence applications that could be provided over broadband have yet to become widespread.
They are an untapped market, or “blue ocean” that exists because of the asymmetry of the digital divide.
Wu Pai-hsun
Kaohsiung
Kuan isn’t fine
Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) is not fine. If he were fine, he would have been the president of the National Taiwan University (NTU) more than three months ago and he would not be crying in front of television cameras nowadays.
When Kuan was elected as president, some questions were raised, such as why he did not mention his position as an independent director of a company in his resume, why another director of the same firm was on the selection committee and why one of his papers in many places is identical to those in a paper by another author.
In response, Kuan arrogantly and snobbishly said: “I am fine!”
The general public thinks Kuan is acting like a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member who thinks he is above the law or a high-class mainlander, rather than a future role model for NTU students, faculty and employees.
The pro-Kuan group, consisting of mainly KMT members, insists on university autonomy and no political involvement.
However, KMT legislators intruded into the minister of education’s office possibly for the first time in history. Many former KMT government officials, including former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), demonstrated on the NTU campus. NTU students were forced out of the campus and at least one was attacked by a retired diplomat.
The demonstrators even shouted at the students “Shame on you” and “Japanese running dogs.” The word “Japanese” should not be involved. The KMT should be ashamed of its lawless behavior. Society is in chaos and divided because of Kuan. Only he can solve this crisis by using his conscience.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS