Whether CTi News’ license is renewed depends largely on a comprehensive evaluation to be completed by seven National Communications Commission (NCC) commissioners, NCC officials said yesterday.
The commission yesterday approved an evaluation form to be used in the review of license renewal applications by all satellite broadcast channels.
Commission Vice Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said that the form was not designed specifically to review the application by CTi News.
The evaluation form has been used by external experts for all reviews since 2016, when the Examination Regulations for the License Renewal of Satellite Broadcasting and Foreign Satellite Broadcasting Businesses (衛星廣播電視事業及境外衛星廣播電視事業換照審查辦法) were enacted, he said.
As stated in Articles 159 and 160 of the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法), the commission is making the form public, he said.
“It serves as a legal guideline that the commission is bound to comply with,” Wong added.
The review of a channel’s license renewal application has three stages, the commission said.
First, the commission checks whether the channel has breached the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) — if so, the application is denied, it said.
Second, external experts review the application according to the criteria on the form, it said, adding that the experts recommend to the commission that it approve or deny the application.
Third, the case is presented to the commissioners, who conduct a comprehensive evaluation, look at the experts’ recommendations and decide whether to follow them, the commission said, adding that each of the seven commissioners clearly states in writing whether a licence should be renewed.
CTi News failed to pass the preliminary review, but commission officials said that the failure did not necessarily mean that its application would be denied.
The regulations state that a channel’s performance over the past six years accounts for 40 percent of the evaluation grade, whereas 60 percent of the grade is made up by the channel’s business plan for the next six years, he said.
Regarding past performance, external experts examine how a channel produced and arranged its programs, enforced its internal quality control mechanism and handled customer complaints.
In terms of its business plan, the experts look at how it sees its niche in the market and if it has new programs, if it has plans to improve its internal control mechanism, and how it plans to charge customers and stay financially viable, train its employees and address customer complaints.
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