National Communications Commission (NCC) spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) yesterday called on cable TV operators to move quickly to provide digital services, adding that it was the only way for them to stand out amid mounting competition from terrestrial TV services and Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia on demand (MOD).
“It would be to their advantage to take that step early,” Chen said. “It is key to their survival.”
Chen made the statement after he announced the results of the cable service fee review at a press conference.
Comprising NCC commissioners and experts in various fields, the cable service fee committee spent 11 hours on Monday reviewing proposed cable service monthly fees for the next year submitted by cable operators Nantian, Hsinyungan, Sun Crown and Twin Stars in Greater Tainan; CYC Cable Corp in Chiayi City; Penghu in Penghu; Mingchen in Kinmen; and Hsiangtung in Matsu.
Only Nantian proposed that its monthly fee remain unchanged. The other seven operators proposed raising their fees, which the NCC turned down.
Nantian and Hsinyungan were asked to cut their monthly fee from NT$540 to NT$510 next year.
Sun Crown and Twin Star were asked to reduce their current monthly fee from NT$500 to NT$480, which also became the lowest cable subscription charge in the country.
The fees of the other four operators remained unchanged.
Chen said the service fee review committee had considered several factors before it came to the decision, but the key was the extent to which operators had digitized cable services.
Chen said Nantian had a penetration rate in the digital cable service of 11.9 percent, while that for Hsinyungan, Sun Crown and Twin Stars were all less than 3 percent as of September, which was much lower than the national average of about 10 percent.
As to why the four cable TV operators in Greater Tainan had two different rates, Chen said that Nantian and Hsinyungan belonged to Tainan County before the special municipality mergers in December last year, while Sun Crown and Twin Stars were in Tainan City.
“Though the residents in Tainan County have a lower income and higher unemployment rate than those in Tainan City, the former also live in a much larger area, which gives rise to increased maintenance costs,” Chen said.
“The committee considered it inappropriate to decrease the subscription charges of all four operators to the same level at the same time,” Chen added.
The commission could allow the cable operators to raise their fees in future if they are diligent in providing digital services, he said.
Cable operators estimated that their revenues would drop by between NT$23 million (US$762,000) and NT$49 million as a result, adding that customers would not benefit from the fee changes.
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