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.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS