CTiTV has submitted a new business plan to broadcast news programs on its CTi Variety channel, National Communications Commission (NCC) officials have said.
The network’s application came after the operating license for its CTi News channel expired in December last year following a unanimous decision by NCC commissioners on Nov. 18 not to renew the license.
NCC officials said they received the business plan for CTi Variety before the Lunar New Year holiday in February, to add morning, midday and evening news hours to the channel’s programming.
Photo courtesy of CtiTV
The variety channel should feature entertainment programs, variety shows and television series, they said.
The business plan should indicate how a variety channel would be different from a news channel or an entertainment channel if news were to be part of its programming, they said, adding that the NCC would review the channel’s business plan before making a final decision.
CTi News was found to have contravened the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) 28 times from 2008 to 2014. Despite securing a conditional license renewal in 2014, the channel contravened the act 25 times from 2014 to last year, with most of the contraventions involving a failure to verify news information before airing it.
From 2008 to last year, CTi News accumulated fines of NT$23.36 million (US$830,194 at the current exchange rate) for contravening the act, NCC data showed.
Its repeated contraventions of media regulations were a sign that its self-discipline mechanism had failed, the NCC said when rejecting the news channel’s license renewal application.
Instead of dismantling its news department and laying off employees, the network has been broadcasting news through its YouTube channel, whose number of subscribers has been steadily increasing.
Content aired on the network’s YouTube channel is not subject to any broadcast regulations.
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