After Formosa Television (FTV) secured government approval to coproduce a TV series with a Chinese company, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday that a series would be considered “made in China” if more than one-third of the cast and crew are Chinese.
Chien Hsu-cheng (簡旭徵), deputy director of the NCC’s Communication Content Department, said that a regulation promulgated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance last week stipulated criteria for determining the origin of a radio or TV program.
LOCAL CONTENT
The Broadcasting and Television Act (廣播電視法) stipulates that at least 70 percent of programs aired on a terrestrial TV station must be produced in Taiwan.
“If the program has main and supporting actors of a certain country exceeding one-third of the total cast; or if the producers, directors and screenwriters of that country also [make up] the same percentage, it will be considered a production of that country,” Chien said.
The NCC released the statement after the Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that FTV had coproduced a TV series with a company in Xiamen, Fujian Province.
STARTING WORK
Some of the actors, including Hong Kong actor Adam Cheng (鄭少秋) and other Chinese actors, arrived on Tuesday to begin shooting.
FTV was quoted in the story as saying it had decided to coproduce the series with the Xiamen company because the cultures of Taiwan and Fujian Province have many similarities.
FTV has produced popular series such as Mom’s House (娘家) in Taiwan. Its network offers terrestrial TV service and cable TV service.
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