Satellite TV broadcasts of locally produced movies and television dramas dropped significantly last year as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted productions and affected funding, the National Communications Commission said on Wednesday.
The commission presented the results of its annual survey of terrestrial and satellite television channels, which was conducted to fulfill the requirements of the Regulations on Terrestrial Television Business Broadcasting Domestically-Produced Programs (無線電視事業播送本國自製節目管理辦法) and the Regulations on Satellite Broadcasting Program Supplier Broadcasting Domestically-Produced Programs (衛星頻道節目供應事業播送本國節目管理辦法).
The regulations mandate that local productions should comprise at least 50 percent of TV dramas broadcast during prime-time hours on terrestrial TV channels, and at least 40 percent of “new broadcasts,” referring to a show or program that is airing for the first time on any channel.
The “new broadcast” requirement also applies to satellite channels.
The regulations for satellite channels focus on airtime for locally produced dramas, movies, variety shows and children’s programs. From 5pm to 7pm, a slot allocated for children’s programs, locally produced shows must account for at least 25 percent of the total, with new broadcasts accounting for at least 40 percent.
The same requirement applies to dramas, movies, documentaries and variety shows airing from 8pm to 11pm.
For movie channels, 25 percent of movies and documentaries that air from 9pm to 11pm should be made in Taiwan, with new broadcasts making up at least 20 percent.
The survey showed that all satellite TV channels met the required airtime for locally produced programs, the commission said.
On terrestrial channels, new movie or TV drama broadcasts rose slightly last year.
On satellite channels, while the airtime and new broadcasts of Taiwanese variety shows rose 10.4 percent and 8.5 percent respectively last year, the airtime of locally produced TV dramas decreased from 8,528 hours in 2019 to 7,719 hours last year.
New broadcasts of locally made TV dramas fell from 3,915 hours in 2019 to 3,495 hours last year.
While the airtime of Taiwan-made movies increased from 2,827 hours in 2019 to 3,284 hours last year, the airtime of new broadcasts declined from 888 hours in 2019 to 597 hours last year.
“In addition to television channels changing their programming plans, the COVID-19 pandemic affected funding available for TV programs and films, and delayed production schedules,” the commission said. “We are glad that these channels’ management had backup programs to meet the requirements under the situation.”
As the pandemic is expected to continue affecting programming this year, the commission said it would be more flexible when reviewing TV channels’ performance.
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