Cable service subscribers are soon to be given at least three days to review their contracts with cable system operators before signing them, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said.
The NCC on Thursday last week approved proposed amendments to the terms of the standardized contract for cable service subscriptions after having allowed the public and key stakeholders comment on them since May 26.
The amendments would be submitted to the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee, which would approve them before making them public, NCC Vice Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
The commission amended the terms of the contract, which was implemented on Sept. 17 last year, to enhance cable service quality and better protect consumers in view of rapid changes to the market brought by the digitization of cable television, he said.
Wong said the commission approved four key amendments.
Cable service subscribers would be given at least three days to review their contracts before signing them, he said, adding that this is a newly added requirement.
A similar clause is stipulated in the mobile phone service contract, which allows subscribers to review their contracts for seven days, Wong said.
Cable operators that use tiered pricing schemes must clearly list all basic channel packages available to subscribers and their respective prices in the contracts, he said.
If cable operators fail to offer subscribers the same number of basic channels as promised in the contract, they should reduce subscription fees or offer other forms of compensation, Wong said.
“In the past, we allowed cable operators to charge full monthly fees if they maintained broadcast of at least 95 percent of the channels in the package, but the amendment would require them to either add another channel to the package or reduce monthly fees if they lose just one channel,” Wong said.
Cable operators were required to take a similar approach after CTi News was taken off the air following the expiration of its broadcast license, he said.
However, if operators offer fewer than two-thirds of the channels stated in the contract and the breach continues for at least 10 days, they should fully waive the subscription fee for the month, Wong said.
The amendments also ban cable service operators from charging subscribers when they uninstall set-top boxes or other accessories, and from charging subscribers extra fees for other reasons, he said.
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