The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday ruled that six cable television operators must either keep their monthly service fees unchanged or reduce them next year.
The ruling came after the review of rate plans for next year submitted by the cable television operators, including Nantien and Hsin Yeong An in Tainan County, CYC Cable Corp in Chiayi City, Penghu in Penghu County, Mingcheng in Kinmen County and Hsiangtung in Matsu.
All of them proposed to raise monthly service charges next year, citing an increase in payments to the television channel operators and losses of advertising revenues as main reasons.
NCC commissioners said the monthly service charges of Nantien, Hsin Yeong An, Mingcheng and Hsiangtung for next year should be the same as this year. CYC Cable and Penghu were asked to reduce their monthly service charges by NT$20.
In general, local governments are in charge of reviewing the monthly service fees of cable television operators. The NCC is responsible for reviewing the rates of these six operators because the county or the city where these operators are located do not have any specific agencies to review the rates.
NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said the committee that reviewed the rates was comprised of experts and college professors who are not affiliated with the NCC.
As Nantien and Hsin Yeong An of Kbro Co have proposed detailed plans to provide their customers with a digital cable television service, both were asked to keep the service charge at NT$540 per month, which is the same as this year, Chen said.
Having a service area in the city, CYC Cable was ordered to reduce the monthly service charge from NT$530 to NT$510 next year, as the operator has not taken steps to execute the government’s digital cable service policy. Chen said Penghu was also asked to drop the service charge from NT$560 to NT$540 per month because it has yet to raise the bandwidth from 550MHz to 750MHz.
Likewise, Mingcheng and Hsiangtung were ordered to keep their fees unchanged, as they were deemed too sluggish in installing the new infrastructure in their respective service areas, he said.
“If the operators actually make efforts to provide digital services or improve the quality of their programs, we could consider allowing them to increase the fees slightly in 2011,” Chen said. “Otherwise, why should we let them raise the fees if the quality of their programs never changes?”
A television channel representative who spoke on condition of anonymity applauded the decision, saying it could set a precedent for local governments to follow.
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