Taiwan Television (TTV) News is qualified to broadcast on Channel 52 with its sufficiently staffed news department and high percentage of self-produced content, the news channel’s management told the National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday.
The broadcast media regulator yesterday for the first time reviewed applications to move TTV News to Channel 52 from 15 cable operators: five cable systems run by TFN Media Co, nine owned or invested in by media tycoon Lien Tai-shen (練台生) and one independent cable operator.
Apart from representatives from cable systems, TTV general manager Chou Fa-shun (周法勳) and TTV News manager Tsuo Yen-ni (左燕妮) also attended the review meeting, NCC Vice Chairman and spokesperson Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
The commission yesterday ruled that it would continue to review the case after TTV News submits requested supplementary information.
“The news channel has a self-disciplinary committee and is soon to establish a journalism ethics committee, and NCC commissioners want it to clarify the differences between the two committees and how they function,” Wong said.
Commissioners were also concerned about the guidelines the channel uses to cover TTV-related news, as well as how it produces stories using footage recorded on surveillance cameras or from YouTube, Wong said, adding that some commissioners asked if TTV News and TTV Financial News use personnel and resources from the same news department.
TTV, which has been privatized for 13 years, serves as a positive example of the government’s media reform, which bans political parties, the government and the military from investing in or managing broadcast media, Chou said in a statement.
In its presentation to NCC commissioners during the meeting, TTV highlighted its qualifications to broadcast on Channel 52 — which is part of the cable news channel block — by comparing itself to Chinese Television System (CTS) News and Info, which has since April 19 broadcast on Channel 52 on the 12 cable systems owned by Homeplus Digital and the nation’s other three cable operators.
While CTS News and Info has about 160 employees in the news department and is planning to expand to 400 employees in three years, TTV News already has 343 full-time staff, and plans to recruit 77 new employees, TTV said.
TTV News and TTV Financial News have separate news departments and broadcast different content, the network added.
TTV News’ budget for program production was more than NT$400 million (US$14.31 million at the current exchange rate) last year, twice as much as CTS News and Info spent, the network said.
Unlike CTS News and Info, which has a one-hour self-produced news program and four hours of simulcast with CTS Main Channel and Public Television Service from 7pm to 12am, TTV News has one hour of simulcast with TTV Main Channel and four hours of self-produced news programs during the same period, it said.
TTV performs better than CTS in terms of financial soundness, news quality control and labor rights protection, the network said.
TTV News plans to air two hours of international news programs and two hours of Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) news daily, the network said, adding that the channel would also produce and broadcast news programs on topics related to art, environmental protection, science and new immigrants to Taiwan.
Last year, 99.99 percent of the programs on TTV News were produced by the channel itself, the network said, adding that it has received local journalism awards for some of its news coverage.
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