The National Communications Commission (NCC) is planning to amend the Broadcasting and Television Act (廣電法) to introduce different rules for the regulation of radio and television industries.
“Applying different standards to oversee the nation’s terrestrial radio and television services is an important concept that will be enshrined in the amended Broadcasting and Television Act,” NCC Commissioner Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) said yesterday at a forum on the future of the radio industry.
Weng said that in terms of size and the way operational licenses are issued, the two industries are very different, which makes it more appropriate to use different standards to guide industry regulation. She added that the amendment would also include regulations governing joint ventures and chain broadcasting among different radio stations that did not appear in the original Broadcasting and Television Act.
Jason Ho (何吉森), director of the NCC’s communication content department, said the Government Information Office (GIO) issued an official notice in 1997 allowing different radio stations to establish joint ventures or radio broadcast chains.
Weng said that the commission also considered the innovative services that both radio and television stations could offer in the age of digital convergence and would incorporate relevant regulations in the act.
The commission is hoping to deliver a draft amendment in June or July, at which point they will invite public input, Weng added.
Weber Lai (賴祥蔚), director of the Applied Media Arts Graduate Institute at National Taiwan University of Arts, agreed that the NCC needs to adopt different standards to regulate radio and television.
“Now the NCC is considering shutting down analog services and providing digital services,” Lai said. “They need to let radio operators know if that same policy is going to be applied to them. For those who are reluctant to make the change, the commission should grant them sufficient time to redeem their investments.”
Lai also hoped that the new regulations would not put up roadblocks to radio operators providing innovative services such as data transmission or Webcasting.
Meanwhile, Weng said that the commission was scheduled to finalize the wording of an amendment to the Cable Television Act (有線電視法) in about two weeks.
This will allow cable broadcasters to operate in different regions rather than in just one region, and ban cable broadcasters from airing commercials in the middle of programs. The amendment will also reduce the percentage of programs provided by system operators and their affiliated enterprises from 25 percent of usable channels to 10 percent.
‘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