The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday extended to June the deadline for cable television companies to replace channels formerly operated by Walt Disney Co, citing a need for more market research.
Disney on Jan. 1 terminated broadcast on five channels as part of its pull-out from the Taiwanese cable television market, leaving vacancies that other firms cannot permanently fill without NCC approval.
The channels formerly operated by Disney were National Geographic, Star Channel Chinese, Star Channel Movies, Star Movies Gold and Star World.
Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
While replacement channels are being aired, cable companies still need NCC authorization before permanently filling the slots, NCC Vice Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
This involves submitting viewership and audience satisfaction data for the proposed substitutes, but companies are reporting that they do not have time to complete the latter, Wong said.
The deadline for renewing the license to broadcast on the channels was extended to June 30, with the condition that cable companies submit viewership and audience satisfaction data before the end of May, he said.
Companies had given the NCC viewership data and reported being unable to complete the market research to produce a reliable report on viewer satisfaction, Wong said.
South Korea-based KMTV Asia and Taiwan-based Catchplay Movie are the most commonly utilized substitutes for Star Channel Chinese and Star Channels among the nation’s 63 television cable companies.
These have sparked public discussion over the need to promote domestically produced Chinese-language content on channel 31, which was formerly used by Star Channel Chinese.
An NCC spokesperson said preliminary data showed that KMTV Asia’s satisfaction rate was about 61 percent across cable networks, while other replacement channels achieved satisfaction rates ranging from 65 to 90 percent.
The company that owns KMTV has said that it would produce locally made programs if enough cable systems adopted their channel to fund production, the spokesperson said.
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