The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it has invited Mirror TV’s management to a meeting next month to answer questions about its plan to set up a cable news channel.
Mirror Media submitted an application to set up a Mirror TV news channel in December 2019, but the commission did not begin reviewing the application until January this year.
NCC commissioners yesterday resumed the review after the news channel in May submitted a new list of board directors and other supplementary materials. They ruled that the review be continued, and invited Mirror TV’s management to a meeting at the NCC on Dec. 1 to answer questions from commissioners.
“We hope to communicate directly with the news channel’s management about our concerns over its shareholding structure, as well as its business plan, once it is allowed to broadcast on cable,” NCC Chief Secretary Chen Chung-shu (陳崇樹) said.
NCC Department of Broadcasting and Content specialist Chen Shu-ming (陳書銘) said that none of the directors serving on the board holds any share in the news channel, which is very different from other TV networks in Taiwan.
Commissioners want Mirror TV’s management to explain how the news channel would operate having zero-shareholding board directors and shareholders, Chen Shu-ming said.
Commissioners would also inquire about the source of the channel’s funding, given its pledge to dedicate resources to the production of international news and investigative reports, he said.
Public records showed that the channel’s chairman is former Ta Chong Bank chairman Chen Chien-ping (陳建平). The other five board directors are Taiwanese film and television director Yang Ya-che (楊雅?;), former Paper Windmill Cultural Foundation CEO Lee Yung-feng (李永豐), former Formosa News political news director Lu Yu-lin (盧宥伶) and former Accton Technology chairman Huang An-jie (黃安捷). Its supervisor is Liu Chih-peng (劉志鵬).
In other news, Eastern Broadcasting Co’s (EBC) management is to meet with NCC commissioners next week to explain why it needs more time to fulfill its pledges, which it made in 2018 to secure approval for its ownership change.
EBC’s current owner had made 14 pledges, but later said it was having difficulty meeting two of them, NCC officials said.
One was increasing the budget by NT$900 million (US$32.36 million) over six years to fund the production of international news, children’s programs, entertainment shows, TV series and TV movies on the network’s channels.
The network asked to extend the deadline for this pledge from 2023 to 2025, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted its production schedule, leaving it with only five years to fulfill the commitment, the commission said.
The other pledge was to spend NT$42 million annually from 2018 to this year to produce 4K high-definition programs, it said.
EBC asked for an extension of the deadline to next year, as its financial statement this year would not be audited by accountants until March next year, it said.
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