Homeplus Digital Co has yet to file a new application for another news channel to take over Channel 52 after retracting its previous application on Friday last week, the National Communications Commission said yesterday, adding that it would evaluate any proposed replacement based on four main aspects stipulated in the Cable Radio and Television Act’s (有線廣播電視法) enforcement rules.
The commission on Nov. 18 last year refused to renew the broadcasting license for CTi News, which had occupied the channel.
Homeplus, which owns 12 cable services and is the nation’s largest multiple system operator, had proposed that Global News take over Channel 52, but it retracted the application on Friday last week without giving a reason.
Chinese Television System (CTS) on Tuesday said its board of directors had authorized management to quickly enter a deal with Homeplus so that its CTS News and Info channel could move to Channel 52 and form part of the Channel 49 to Channel 58 cable news channel block.
Many interpreted Homeplus’ retraction as a political decision rather than the result of a business negotiation, as commission Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) had urged cable service operators to consider giving CTS a chance. Chen also reportedly met with Homeplus’ management to discuss related issues.
Commission Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said at the commission’s weekly briefing that the Homeplus had voluntarily retracted its application.
The commission has not yet received a new application from the multiple system operator, he said.
Taiwan Broadband Communications and Dafeng Cable TV have proposed that CNN news be moved to Channel 52, while Shih-hsin Cable Television Inc and Kuo-shen Cable Television Inc, which are both based in Chiayi, have proposed that France 24’s English-language channel fill the spot, Wong said.
“We reviewed the proposals from these four operators at a preliminary meeting on Monday and are soon to deliberate over them at the commissioners’ meeting,” he said.
Wong said channel lineups are determined through negotiations between cable systems and channels, adding that the NCC has no right to intervene in such negotiations.
If Homeplus proposes moving CTS News and Info to Channel 52, the commission would review the application based on whether it would facilitate market competition, compromise consumer rights, enrich content diversity and safeguard public interests, Wong said.
“We would also examine the percentage of the channel’s self-produced programs and whether its financial status would enable it to operate on cable TV,” he said.
Commission data showed that CTS’ new broadcast rate — the airing of shows that have not appeared on other cable news channels first — was 49.62 percent in 2019.
It fared better than China Television News Channel (39.34 percent), and worse than Taiwan Television News Channel (64.17 percent) and Formosa TV News (77.85 percent).
Approximately 96.9 percent of programs were produced by CTS, its report to the commission said.
As of the second quarter of last year, the terrestrial television system was NT$5.51 billion (US$194.2 million) in debt, Market Observation Post System data showed.
Taiwan Television News Channel has also expressed an interest in securing Channel 52.
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