The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday questioned Mirror TV’s ability to sustain itself when it initially launches, saying the news channel’s financial assessment for the next five years was too optimistic.
Mirror TV chairman Chen Chien-ping (陳建平) and management from its news department visited the NCC yesterday morning to answer questions from NCC commissioners about their plan to establish a cable news channel, NCC Vice Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) told the commission’s weekly news briefing.
Commissioners asked about the news channel’s business plan over the next five years, Wong said, adding they were mainly interested in learning how the channel planned to secure funding and if it aimed to recruit more news department employees.
The commission ruled that the channel must submit additional information requested by the commissioners before the review is resumed, he said.
The channel’s business plan showed that its funding would come initially come from three main sources: advertising revenue, content authorization fees from cable system operators and the execution of government-sponsored projects, Wong said.
Mirror TV management also told the NCC that they plan to pick a slot after Channel 80 to broadcast from, Wong said, adding that they aim to air from the “cable news block” — channels 49 to 58 — in three to five years.
However, commissioners told the channel’s management that their financial plan for the next five years might be too optimistic, Wong said.
“We asked them when and how they plan to break even, given that they need to pay cable system operators to be included in the channel lineup in the first few years of operation. They are not likely to receive substantial advertising revenue in the beginning if the channel is not going to be in the news block,” Wong said.
The channel’s business plan showed that it does not expect to generate any profit from next year to 2027, but it pledged to increase the number of news department employees from 220 at present to 440 within three months of securing the license, he said.
Commissioners want Mirror TV’s management to provide more detail on how the news channel would operate with shareholders, zero-shareholding board directors, an independent ombudsman and a journalism ethics committee, Wong said.
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