The Cable Broadband Institute in Taiwan (CBIT) announced that it is planning to invest NT$10 billion (US$317.13 million) to complete the installation of set-top boxes to achieve full digitization of cable services by the end of this year.
Once providers stop transmitting analog signals, analog service subscribers will not be able to watch cable TV unless they have set-top boxes.
The institute represents the nation’s major multiple system operators.
Operators have already spent about NT$195 million installing 9.74 million set-top boxes in households across the nation, institute chief executive officer Claudia Peng (彭淑芬) said, adding that the total infrastructure investment needed to fully digitize cable services is estimated to surpass NT$55.3 billion.
The penetration rate for digital cable services is now 96 percent, she said, adding that cable operators have earmarked the additional NT$10 billion for installing set-top boxes in the final 4 percent of households.
In related news, National Communications Commission spokesperson Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) yesterday confirmed that a dispute between cable channel agents and new cable service operators over content authorization fees was not resolved at an arbitration meeting on Thursday last week.
New cable service operators complained that they were asked to pay the same content authorization fees as other cable operators, even though they did not have as many subscribers.
Rather than being charged at a flat rate equal to 15 percent of registered cable TV subscribers, new providers said that they should be charged based on the number of subscribers that they have.
According to Wong, cable channel agents such as Kbro refused to lower content authorization fees because they said other cable operators would ask that they be charged the same amount as the newcomers.
As the new providers refused to pay the price set by the agents, the two sides are now at in impasse, Wong said.
“It will take time for the two parties to reach an agreement,” he added.
Cable operators have also complained to the Fair Trade Commission about newcomers using what they say are predatory pricing strategies that disrupted the market order, with cable subscribers being charged unreasonably low monthly fees to access content, Wong said.
Apart from investigating whether channel operators discriminated against new cable operators by offering preferential pricing schemes, the commission is to also look into whether cable operators discriminated against particular channels by refusing to include them in their channel lineup, Wong said.
Meanwhile, commission chairwoman Nicole Chan (詹婷怡) reiterated that the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) and Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法) stipulate that cable channel agents must not treat public audio and visual broadcasting platforms preferentially without justification.
Nor can cable TV systems pressure or prevent channel operators from airing content on other public audio and visual broadcasting platforms without legitimate reasons, she said.
Under the regulations, channel operators can have content aired on Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand digital TV service, she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS