The National Communications Commission (NCC) is considering again postponing the implementation of a tiered-pricing scheme for cable operators, as it has not finalized some key support measures related to the policy, the commission said on Tuesday.
“The cable service market would descend into chaos if there are no mechanisms to arbitrate disputes over content authorization fees or to govern the distribution of profits between channel operators and cable operators,” NCC chairman-designate Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) said.
“We hope that these mechanisms are in place first” before the policy is implemented, Chen said.
Chen, whose nomination for NCC chair has been approved by the Legislative Yuan, is to take office next month.
NCC officials said that the commission is unlikely to complete all of the support measures before the end of this year, making it nearly impossible for it to enforce a tiered-pricing policy next year.
The commission was to implement the policy this year after passing pricing standards in June last year.
However, less than a month later, it announced that it would push the implementation to next year, as it lacked a complete set of complementary measures.
Local government officials every August are required to review cable operators’ proposed service fees for the following year, so implementing a tiered-pricing scheme this year would create a tight deadline for operators and officials, the commission said.
Based on the pricing standards the NCC approved last year, each operator must provide at least two basic channel packages.
The first package must have the 13 “must-carry” channels required under the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法), including terrestrial TV stations and Public Television Service, with the price for such packages capped at NT$200 per month.
The other package — which the NCC must approve the year before — would have the most subscribers and generally include more than 100 channels. Those packages are capped at NT$600 per month.
Cable service operators can also offer other packages or allow people to pay for individual channels, the commission said.
“Even though a tiered policy is not in place, all of the major multiple-system operators already offer channel packages following such a principle,” Chen said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS