Disney Group is set to cancel five cable channels in Taiwan as part of its plans to close 18 TV channels in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Fox Network Group’s branch in Taiwan said yesterday.
The news follows the group’s termination on Jan. 1 of its broadcast of Fox Sports 1, 2 and 3 channels in Taiwan.
A story published on Tuesday by US entertainment news site Variety said that the 18 channels include Fox, Fox Crime, Fox Life and FX; movie channels Fox Action Movies, Fox Family Movies, Fox Movies and Star Movies China; sports channels Fox Sports, Fox Sports 2, Fox Sports 3, Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2; kids’ channels Disney Channel and Disney Junior; and factual services Nat Geo and SCM Legend.
Many of the soon-to-be closed channels are those that Disney acquired through the merger with 21st Century Fox in 2019, the story said, adding that it is to take effect on Oct. 1.
Disney said in a statement that the move is part of its global efforts to pivot toward a direct-to-customer model and to further grow its Disney+ streaming services.
“These efforts will help us align our resources more efficiently and effectively, to current and future business needs,” he said.
The five channels to be canceled in Taiwan are Fox Crime, Fox Family Movies, FX channel, Channel V and National Geographic People, Fox Taiwan said yesterday.
These channels are aired through Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand system, as well as local cable TV providers, with customers paying extra to watch them on top of regular subscription fees, it said.
However, people in Taiwan would still be able to watch the Disney and Star Movie channels, it added.
Article No. 21 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) requires satellite broadcasters to notify the National Communications Commission three months before they terminate broadcasts, the commission said.
They are also obligated to inform subscribers about the change by running news tickers one month before termination, it said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater