The National Communications Commission (NCC) should amend a law stipulating that movies broadcast during primetime be 20 percent Taiwanese-made, cable TV operators said yesterday, citing the slower production of local movies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the threat of overseas online streaming services.
Article 5 of the Regulations on Satellite Broadcasting Program Supplier Broadcasting Domestically Produced Programs (衛星頻道節目供應事業播送本國節目管理辦法) states that locally produced movies should constitute at least 25 percent of all movies broadcast on cable TV from 9pm to 11pm, with new local movies representing at least 20 percent.
However, it takes longer for local studios to produce movies and pre-production often lasts several years, so operators’ only option for meeting the 20 percent threshold is to broadcast telefilms or documentaries, which have a smaller niche market, Fu Ching-ching (傅菁菁), head of Eastern Broadcasting Co’s movie channel, told a hearing cohosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, including Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) and Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍).
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Overseas streaming platforms do not follow NCC rules, putting local channels at a disadvantage, Fu added.
Locally made movies typically cost more to broadcast than foreign films, added Lee Chen-yi (李貞儀), who heads NextTV’s movie channel.
So far this year, there have only been nine locally made movies, compared with 54 for the same period last year, making the 20 percent threshold difficult to meet, said Chung Hui-chen (鍾惠貞), assistant manager of Videoland Inc’s movie channel.
The regulations state that operators should only broadcast movies six months after they are released in cinemas to meet the 20 percent threshold, but none of the new movies this year have hit cinema screens yet, she added.
LS Time Assistant president Wang Chiu-yu (王秋庸) said that the company has so far this year only broadcast one new local movie, but its ratings were higher when broadcast outside of primetime, meaning that viewers do not prefer to watch local movies from 9pm to 11pm.
The government should reward cable TV operators who reach the 20 percent primetime target, rather than punish those who do not, Long Turn TV president Chen Yi-chun (陳依君) said.
With demanding regulations, decreased movie production, and competitive over-the-top media services from abroad, cable TV operators are squeezed by internal and external pressures, Chen Yu-jen said, urging the NCC to keep up with the times by easing the regulations.
NCC Department of Broadcasting and Contents Director Huang Chin-yi (黃金益) told the hearing that to promote original content production and locally made TV programs, the NCC amended the regulations in 2016, with a strong consensus among ruling and opposition lawmakers.
The NCC monitors the implementation of the regulations closely and is willing to make adjustments, he said, citing an amendment last year that changed audits of cable TV channels from every six months to yearly.
The NCC considered changing the 20 percent primetime target, but telefilms were subsequently included in the definition of “movie,” which pushes production of local movies closer to 80 per year, Huang said.
Cable TV operators’ opinions would be shared with the NCC and inform further discussions, he added.
Wang Chih-cheng (王志諍), deputy head of the Ministry of Culture’s Department of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development, told the hearing that the production capacity of the local movie industry has been rising with the support of the ministry, which would continue to look for new investment and subsidies for the industry.
Although COVID-19 is well-contained in Taiwan, uncertainty still hinders movie makers, Chinese Communication Management Society president Weber Lai (賴祥蔚) said.
As a result, there are almost no new local movies for cable TV operators to procure, and when there are, the quality is not ideal, he said, adding that operators attempt to comply with the regulations by broadcasting “new” movies produced a long time ago that have yet to appear on TV.
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