Mass Media. ROC (Taiwan) Yearbook 2011 Ch15 mass media

The Eslite bookseller chain flagship store in downtown Taipei.

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At a Glance• Printmediadiversifybusinessmodels

• e-Publishingrecordsrapidgrowth

• CableTVoperatorstocompeteoverwiderarea

15 Mass Media

The diversity of Taiwan’s media environment is reflected in the plethora of outlets and the intense competition within the industry. With over 280 TV channels, 170 radio stations, 2,100 newspapers and 8,100 magazines competing for the

eyeballs and ears of the entire population of 23 million people, not to mention a wide array of news and entertainment services on the Web, media competition in Taiwan is arguably the world’s keenest.

In 2010, most types of media continued the industry-wide transition to digital forms of distribution in order to survive and thrive. Print edi-tions of newspaper and magazine publishers continued to lose ground to Internet advertising competitors. Drawing on Taiwan’s strengths in information and communications technologies, e-publishing is injecting fresh vitality into their development as well as that of the book industry.

Meanwhile, terrestrial television is undergoing a transition from analog to digital broadcasting, a process scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012, while cable TV operations have gone into high gear in the race to provide digital programming and defend market share.


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News AgenciesAs of June 2011, there were 1,886

domestic news agencies in Taiwan, most of which focused on providing economic and financial intelligence to clients in Taiwan. The largest among them is the Central News Agency (CNA) 中央通訊社. Established as an arm of the Kuomintang 中國國民黨 in Guangzhou 廣州 in 1924 and relocated to Taiwan in 1949, it has been in operation longer than any other news outlet in the ROC. Prior to full democratization, it served as the ROC’s official state news agency. In 1996, CNA was reorganized as an autonomous news-gathering organization free of political interference in its reportage and editorial policymaking, though it is funded in part by the central government, and its top management is appointed by the Execu-tive Yuan.

In recentyears,CNAhas rapidly ex-tended its outreach by taking advantageof the Internet and digital technologies.With correspondents reporting from ev-erycityandcountyofTaiwanaswellasfrom 17 foreign countries, the agencyprovides domestic and internationalnewsinChinese,EnglishandSpanishtomedia organizations worldwide. Amongits other Internet operations are a globalbusiness information service, a newsnetwork serving the needs of TaiwanesebusinesspeopleinmainlandChina,andawebsitecateringtoclientsinHongKongandMacau.

The agency operates an online photosales platform, the largest of its kindin Taiwan. It also provides audio newsprograms to radio stations and airlines,and news services to mobile phone us-ers.Capitalizingon itsworldwidenews-gathering network, in April 2010 CNAexpanded into video news, furnishingclients with reports and video clips ona daily basis. On February 16, 2011, itestablished a Video News Center. The

generalpubliccanaccessCNAnewssto-riesinChinese,EnglishandSpanish.TheEnglish-languageedition,titledtheFocusTaiwan News Channel, can be found athttp://focustaiwan.tw.

Another prominent news agency, theChina Economic News Service (CENS)中國經濟通訊社, was founded in 1974 bytheUnitedDailyNewsGroup聯合報系 toprovide overseas buyers with up-to-datebusinessandeconomicnewsaswellasin-formation on and the contact informationofTaiwanesesuppliers.Inaddition,CENSpublishes trade magazines in print andCD-ROMeditionsandfacilitatesdomesticfirms’participationinoverseasexhibitions.

Establishedin1946undertheMinistryof National Defense, the Military NewsAgency(MNA)軍事新聞通訊社istheonlydomesticnewsagency that specializes innews about the ROC armed forces. Be-sidesnewsreleasesandphotos,theMNAalsoprovidesvideonewsreports.

Print MediaNewspapers

According to The Nielsen Company,newspaper readership in Taiwan peakedat 76.3 percent in 1991 and has steadilydeclinedsincethen.Only43.9percentofrespondents to its 2008 survey said theyhad read a newspaper the previous day,representing a decrease of more than 30percentage points over nearly two de-cades.Despite this, thenumberofnews-papers continued growing until 2004.Between 1988 and 1991, the number ofregisterednewspapersinTaiwanskyrock-etedfrom31to244,andin2004,toare-cordhighof2,524.AsofJune2011, thefigurestoodat2,156.

Annual surveys from 2004 to 2008 conducted by Shih Hsin University 世新

大學 consistently showed that television had become the primary source of news


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for most adults, and surveys conducted in 2009 by market survey companies InsightXplorer 創市際市場研究顧問 and Pollster 波市特線上市調網 found that news-papers have been further marginalized by easy access to online news. This may ex-plain why, of the 2,100-plus newspapers registered in 2011, only a couple dozen are published on a daily basis, and only a few have been able to sustain economi-cally viable circulation and sales.

The Chinese-language Liberty Times 自由時報, the Apple Daily 蘋果日報, the

United Daily News 聯合報 and the China Times 中國時報 are Taiwan’s major dailies. (Unless otherwise indicated, newspapers and magazines mentioned below are Chinese-language publications.)

The Liberty Times, which began operations under that name in 1988, is the only local newspaper to have joined the ROC branch of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) 中華民國發行公信會 (which conducts surveys of newspaper and magazine circulation primarily as reference for advertisers). According to

Landmark Events in the Development of Taiwan’s Mass Media

1952The Enforcement Rules for the Publication Act 出版法施行細則 are promulgated,markingthebeginningofabanontheestablishmentofnewnewspapers,magazinesandnewsagenciesinTaiwan.Thenumberofpageseachnewspapercanpublishperissueisalsorestricted.

1987ThefirstTaipeiInternationalBookExhibitionisheld.1988Thebanonnewnewspapersandmagazinesendsaftertheliftingofmartiallaw(1987);

115newdailiesjointhemarket.1993The Government Information Office (GIO) 行政院新聞局 opens up the radio airwaves,

accepting applications for new radio station licenses. 1993The Cable Radio and Television Act 有線廣播電視法 goes into effect, dividing the

country into 51 franchise areas.1994TheGIObeginsacceptingapplicationsforcableTVfranchises.1995TheChina Timeslaunchesitswebsite—thefirstlocalnewspapertopostitscontent

online.1999The Legislative Yuan (Legislature) repeals the Publication Act 出版法, completely

eliminatinggovernmentcontrolofpublishingmedia.2003TheHongKong-investedApple DailylaunchesitsTaiwanedition.2004Thenumberofregisterednewspaperspeaksat2,524,comparedwith31in1988.2005AmendmentstotheRadioandTelevisionAct廣播電視法,CableRadioandTelevision

Act, and the Satellite BroadcastingAct衛星廣播電視法 take effect, banning govern-mentagenciesandpoliticalpartiesfrominvestinginoroperatingelectronicmedia.

2006Thenewspaperindustryundergoesawaveofclosings,withwell-knowndailieslikethe Great Daily News大成報, Taiwan Daily臺灣日報, Central Daily News 中央日報,Star Newspaper星報andMin Sheng Daily民生報goingoutofbusiness.

2010The primarily English-language Taiwan News ends its daily print edition after 62yearsofpublicationinfavorofanexclusivelyonlineversion.

2011TheExecutiveYuanapprovesamendmentstotheRadioandTelevisionAct;Cable,RadioandTelevisionAct;andSatelliteBroadcastingActtoallowgovernmentagen-ciestoholdupto10percentofequitysharesintelevisionandbroadcastingcompa-niesaswellascablesystemoperators.


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ABC’s data, the paper had a circulationofapproximately667,000in2010,repre-sentingthelargestindependentlycertifiedcirculationamongnewspapers inTaiwanthatyear.

The debut of the Apple Daily in2003 shook up the newspaper marketby offering more excitement. Like itsparent tabloid-style paper of the samename founded in Hong Kong in 1995by Next Media Ltd. 壹傳媒有限公司, theTaiwan edition has carved out a nicheby publishing intriguing accounts andphotos of celebrities and figures in theworlds of politics, entertainment andsports.Itsextensiveuseofgraphicsalsocontributestoitsappeal.In2008,itslastyearasanABCmember, thepaperhadan audited circulation of 510,000. Un-likeThe Liberty Times,which relies onsubscriptions for over 70 percent of itscirculation,theApple Dailyhasbecomea major player in the newspaper indus-trybywinningadominant shareof thenewsstandmarket.

Founded in 1951, the United Daily News continues to enjoy a loyal reader-ship.SinceSeptember2004,ithasputoutasupplementeveryTuesdaywitharticlesfrom The New York Times, including a

fewwithaccompanyingChinese transla-tion. Sister publications of the United Daily News include the Economic Daily News 經濟日報 and the United Evening News聯合晚報, which has been Taiwan’ssoleeveningpapersince2005.TheUnit-edDailyNewsGroupalsopublishes theWorld Journal世界日報, themostpopularChinese-language newspaper in NorthAmericaandThailand.

Foundedin1950,theChina Timeshasrecentlybeenrepositioningitselfasanin-tellectuallymoresophisticatedpaperthatprovides in-depthanalysesandextensivecoverage of international affairs. Overthe past few years, it has extended itsoperations into electronic media, bring-ing under its umbrella the terrestrial TVstation China Television Co. 中國電視公

司 and satellite TV channel Chung TienTelevision (CtiTV) 中天電視. It has alsocrossedoverintothetourismbusiness,of-feringculture- andhistory-oriented toursacross the globe. Sister publications oftheChina Times include theCommercial Times工商時報,theChina Times Weekly時報周刊andtheWant Daily旺報,anewspa-perlaunchedin2009targetingTaiwanesereaders interested in mainland Chinesebusinessaffairs.

Media Profile

Radiostations 171Terrestrial(wireless)televisionstations 5Cabletelevisionsystemoperators 62TVandradioprogramproduction/distributioncompanies 7,160Audio(compactdisc,etc.)productioncompanies 10,098Satellitebroadcastingprogramproviders(281channels) 107Satellitebroadcastingserviceoperators 9Newspapers 2,156Magazines 8,122Bookpublishers 13,257ForeignmediawithcorrespondentsinTaiwan 61

Note:FiguresareasofJune2011.Sources:GovernmentInformationOffice;NationalCommunicationsCommission


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A cross-section assortment of various magazines published in Taiwan.

Recent years have seen the rise ofgiveawaynewspapers.Amongthem,NextMedia’s tabloid the Sharp Daily 爽報,whichsharesnewscontentwiththeApple Daily, ispublishedfivedaysaweekandtargets rapid transit commuters inTaipeiCity 臺北市, New Taipei City 新北市 andKaohsiungCity高雄市aswellasreadersin Taichung City 臺中市. A second freedaily,Upaper,ispublishedbytheUnitedDaily News Group, which targets themorethan1.1milliondailyTaipeiMetro臺北捷運passengers.

Of Taiwan’s specialized newspapers,the most widely read are those focus-ing on finance and the economy. Theleading dailies in this category are theCommercial Times and the Economic Daily News.Andfor foreignresidents inTaiwan as well asTaiwanese wishing tokeep abreast of world affairs, besides amultitudeofforeignnewspapersavailableat major bookstores, there are three lo-callypublishedEnglishdailies tochoosefrom—the Taipei Times, The China Postand theTaiwan News.TheTaiwan NewsendedprintpublicationonSeptember30,2010 and is now only available via an

onlineedition.Anotherexclusivelyonlinenewspaper, Taiwan Today, is publishedsevendaysaweekbytheGIO.

MagazinesWith 8,122 periodicals (as of June

2011)cateringtoallsortsofreaderships,one might reasonably conclude thatTaiwan’s magazine industry is reachingsaturation. Each year, however, has seenmore magazines enter the market thanbow out of it. Though a record-high 84magazines withdrew from the market in2008,presumablydueinparttotheglob-al recession, 110-plus magazines defiedtheoddsandenteredthefraythatyear.

Data compiled by the Ministry ofFinance(MOF)showsthatthemagazineindustry’s annual revenues rose steadilyforacoupleofdecadesuntil2006,afterwhichtheyfluctuatedbetweenahighofNT$22billion(US$701million)in2008and a low of NT$20 billion (US$607million)in2009asaresultoftheglob-al financial crisis, before reboundingto NT$21.67 billion (US$685 million)in2010.


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In response to fierce rivalry withinthe industryaswellas tosharpcompeti-tion of Web-based and other media foradvertisingpatronage,magazinepublish-ers have been trying to create multiplestreams of income instead of relyingmainly on advertising. Commonly seenwaysofdiversifying revenuesources in-clude charging for access to periodicals’databases, partnering with governmentagenciesorenterprisestoorganizeevents,andformingallianceswithothertypesofmediatopromoteproductsandservices.

Market surveys show that magazineson finance and business management,newsandcurrent affairs aswell as fash-ionarethemostpopularamongTaiwan’sreading public, with the first two typesdominating the market for weeklies, andthe last commanding the lion’s share ofmonthlies.Leadingperiodicalsonfinanceand business management include theBusiness Weekly商業周刊,Business Today今周刊, CommonWealth 天下雜誌, Smart智富月刊 and Wealth財訊雜誌, while Next Magazine壹周刊,theChina Times Weekly,theMing Pao Weekly明報周刊, theTVBS Weekly and Vision 遠見雜誌 are readers’topchoicesfornewsandcurrentaffairs.

Though magazines have been los-ing audience share and advertisingrevenues to electronic media, Taiwan

remainsanattractivemarketforpublish-ersofinternationallyknownperiodicals.Some, such as Time, Newsweek andThe Economist, offer direct subscrip-tion services or distribute their publica-tions through bookstores, while otherspublish Chinese-language editions inpursuit of a wider readership. The Chi-neseeditionsoffashionmagazinessuchas Vogue, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan,ELLE and ViVi have long enjoyed topspots inTaiwan’s sales charts.ThoseofNational Geographic magazine, sciencemagazines such as Scientific AmericanandNewton,aswellassportsandleisuremagazines such as Golf, XXL, TENNIS,andCar and DriverhavealsosucceededincarvingoutanicheinTaiwan’smaga-zinemarket.

The success of English-learningmagazinesisalsoanoteworthyfeatureofTaiwan’s market. Studio Classroom 空中

英語教室 and Let’s Talk in English大家說

英語, both associated with radio and TVprograms,haverankedamongthetop20best-sellingmagazinesformanyyears.

The GIO publishes a number offoreign-languagemagazinesinprintandonline formats that report on Taiwan.These includeTaiwan Review (English),Taiwan aujourd’hui (French), Taiwan heute (German), Taivanskaia Panorama

Taipei International Book Exhibition

OneofAsia’slargestannualbookfairs,theTaipeiInternationalBookExhibition(TIBE)臺北國際書展 servesasachannel fordisseminatingmarket information,developingbusi-ness relationships and marketing publishing rights. Among the innumerable Chinese-languagepublicationsondisplay eachyear arewinnersof theGoldenTripodAwards金鼎獎,presentedsince1976mainlyinrecognitionofexcellenceofcontent,andtheGoldenButterflyAwards金蝶獎,heldannuallysince2004forlayoutandartisticdesign.

The19thTIBE,heldfromFebruary9to14,2011,inrecognitionoftheyear’sthemecoun-try,theKingdomofBhutan,hadasitstheme“Reading—ThePathtoWellbeing.”Amongotherevents,itfeaturedaReadingFestivalwith100publicreadingsinadozenlanguages.

TIBE2011hostednearly856publishersand450writersfrom59countries.Withamil-liontitlesinChineseandotherlanguagesbeingoffered,theeventattracted590,000visitors.


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(Russian) and Taiwan Hoy (Spanish).Another GIO periodical, Taiwan Pan-orama 台灣光華雜誌, is published in twoeditionsfeaturingparalleltexts,onewithChineseandEnglish,theotherwithChi-nese and Japanese. The Taiwan Reviewcelebrated its 60th anniversary in April2011,whileTaiwan Panoramacelebratedits35thyearinprint.

BooksSincetheInternationalStandardBook

Number(ISBN)systemwasimplementedinTaiwan in1989, thenumberofbooksappearing with ISBN codes has grownsteadily, exceeding 40,000 each yearsince1995.Despite theglobal economicdownturn over the past couple of years,the book market has proven to be resil-ient. In2008, itexperiencedadeclineofonly677newtitlesand1percentofrev-enuesonsalesofroughlyUS$1billion.

In2010,thenation’stwolargestchainbooksellers, Kingstone 金石堂 and Eslite誠品,aswellasitsmostprominentonlinebookstore,Books.com.tw博客來,reportedsales growth. The latter’s sales jumped

27.6 percent year-on-year to 11,316,568volumes,or31,004perday.

As of June 2011, there were 13,257book publishers registered in Taiwan.Apart from a score of large ones af-filiated with media conglomerates andenjoying ample financial and marketingresources, the majority were small, in-dependent firms with registered capitalunderUS$160,000.Given thatTaiwan’spopulation growth rate is approachingzero and its book-reading public num-bers less than20million, new titles areexperiencing shorter shelf lives and de-clining sales. Whereas books must sellbetween 5,000 and 20,000 copies to beprofitable, most new titles struggle tosellouttheirtypicalfirstprintingof2,000to3,000copies.

Inadditiontoworksoffiction,bookson management, personal developmentandspiritualenlightenmenthavethewid-estappealamongTaiwanesereaders,withtranslations of foreign books continuingtosellwellin2010.Fouroftheyear’stop10 best-sellers were translations of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, Elizabeth

Display board promoting a comic publication at the 2011 Taipei International Book Exhibition.


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A touch-screen e-reader display featured at a trade exhibition in Taiwan.

Gilbert’sEat, Pray, Love,StiegLarsson’sThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,andThe Baker Street LettersbyMichaelRobertson. In Taiwan’s book market, abestseller is defined as one that quicklysellsaround100,000copies.

In recent years, the United States,Japan, the United Kingdom, mainlandChina and South Korea have been themain sources for book licensing, whilemainlandChina,SouthKorea,Singapore,Japan and other Asian countries havebeen the topbuyersofpublication rightsfor books copyrighted in Taiwan. Al-though the inward flow of publicationlicenses for translated works is greaterthantheoutwardflow,domesticpublish-ers specializing in illustrated books andchildren’sbooks,suchasGrimmPress格林文化 and Heryin Books 和英文化, havegained a foothold in overseas markets.Writer-illustrator Jimmy Liao’s 幾米works have been translated into a dozenlanguagesandsoldacrossNorthAmericaand Europe.And, since Guji Guji madeit to The New York Times bestseller listin 2005, the English versions of ChenChih-yuan’s 陳致元 picture books havewon widespread international acclaim,

including children’s book awards in theUnitedStatesandJapan.Hislatestrelease,Artie and Julie 阿迪和朱莉, was selectedbytheU.S.NationalCouncilofTeachersofEnglishasoneofthe10mostnotablechildren’sbooksof2009.

Aspiring writers’ distribution oftheirworksfreeofchargeviatheInter-nethasalsobecomeanotable trend inrecentyears.

e-PublishingJust as Gutenberg’s printing press

mademassproductionofbooksanddis-seminationofknowledgepossible,digi-tization has spawned a revolution thathas radically changed the way booksare produced, distributed, consumedandpreserved.Awareoftheirreversibletrend of digitization, more and morepublishers are focusing on models formarketinge-books.

Asof theendof2008,GIOstatisticsindicate that 27.9 percent of domesticpublishers were engaged in digital pub-lishing,while46.6percentplannedtodosowithinthenext threeyears.Neverthe-less,44.1percentofpublishersexpressedconcernsoverrelatedproblems,including


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copyright infringement, the difficulty ofconvincingpeopletochangetheirreadinghabits,andfunding.

On the hardware side, backed by astrong information and communicationstechnology industry,Taiwanover thepastfewyears has developed a complete sup-ply chain of key components for e-bookreading devices, commonly known as“e-readers.”Amongthe10-plusTaiwanesecompaniesspecializingine-readertechnol-ogies,PrimeViewInternational元太科技istheworld’sNo.1producerof“e-paper”—ultra-thin e-reader screens, also knownas “electronic ink displays”—supplyingmorethan90percentoftheglobalmarketforthise-readercomponent.

BenQ 明碁電通, a leading Taiwan-based manufacturer of computer andcommunications equipment, launched itsnReader, the world’s first multilinguale-reader, in January 2010, and displayedattheTaipeiWorldTradeCenterinmid-2010 a 6-inch e-reader with a camera toscan a book’s bar code. Taiwan’s DeltaElectronics 台達電子 displayed a 13-inchcolor-displaye-readeratthesameevent.

As to digital publication format, do-mesticcontentprovidershaveinprincipleagreed toadopt thefreeandopenEPUBstandard set by the International DigitalPublishing Forum. Users of e-readersdisplaying this format can join 500 par-ticipating libraries in Taiwan to borrownearly11,000 titles that the librarieswillofferonlineby2012.

Aiming to boost development of e-publishing,theExecutiveYuaninAugust2009unveiled theDigitalPublishingIn-dustryDevelopmentStrategyandActionPlan數位出版產業發展策略及行動計畫,whichprovidessubsidiestodevelopersandpro-ducers of related technologies, productsandservicesoverafive-yearperiod.WithabudgetofUS$66million, itsgoalsareto establish two or three open platformsthatofferdigitalpublicationscompatible

with any kind of e-reader, provide atleast 100,000 Chinese-language e-booktitles,andboostthecombinede-publishingindustry’s output value to US$3 billionby2013.

Broadcast MediaRadio

As of June 2011, Taiwan had 171radio stations. Of these, 141 began op-eration only after 1993, when liberaliza-tionresultedinthereleaseofmoreradiofrequencies for commercial use. Thissharp increase in thenumberof stations,however, has not been accompanied bya proportional increase in listeners, thusresulting in greater segmentation of thelisteningpublic.

Surveyshavefoundthatmusicstationsare the most popular, primarily attractingpeople in their 20s. In second and thirdplaces are variety stations and news sta-tions, which are favorites among teenag-ers and male motorists, respectively. Theprime times for radio broadcasting are 8a.m.to12noonand2p.m.to6p.m.

RadioTaiwanInternational(RTI)中央

廣播電台,fundedbythegovernment,pro-ducesandbroadcastsprogramstoregionsaround the world in 13 languages, high-lighting Taiwan’s culture, society, andpoliticalandeconomicaffairs.

While most radio programs are inMandarin or Holo河洛語, some are pro-duced in Hakka 客語, the Austronesianlanguages of Taiwan’s indigenous peo-ples,Englishandotherforeignlanguages(seeChapter2,“PeopleandLanguage”).

International Community Radio Tai-pei 台北國際社區廣播電台—ICRT—is the island’s only predominantly English-language radio station, and broadcasts talk shows, news reports and Western pop music. In addition, a dozen other radio stations air programs in English, Thai,


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Indonesian and Vietnamese, providing Taiwan’s tens of thousands of Southeast Asian residents with information about Taiwan, its labor regulations and news from their homelands.

Among Taiwan’s seven nonprofit, public service radio stations are National Education Radio 教育電台, which pri-marily offers educational and language-learning programs, and the Police Radio Station 警察廣播電台, which specializes in round-the-clock traffic and news reports, helping people recover belongings left in taxis and facilitating rescue and disaster relief efforts.

TelevisionTerrestrial Television

Taiwan’s television industry dates back almost half a century to 1962. In its first three decades, TV broadcasting was monopolized by three terrestrial stations—Taiwan Television Enterprise 臺灣電視公司, the Chinese Television System (CTS) 中華電視公司 and China Television Co. The industry has become highly di-versified since 1993, when multi-channel cable and satellite television system op-erators and content providers officially entered the market. Competition furtherintensifiedwith the launchingof twoad-ditionalterrestrialbroadcasters—FormosaTelevision 民間全民電視公司 in 1997 andthe nonprofit Public Television Service(PTS)in1998.

The Taiwan Public Television ServiceFoundation 公共電視文化事業基金會 is anonprofit organization whose mission isto serve the public interest, uplift nationalbroadcastingstandards,aswellassafeguardfreedomofexpressionandaccesstoknowl-edge while enhancing cultural and educa-tionaldevelopment inTaiwan.Fundedbythe government and the private sector, itismandated tooperateasan independentinstitutionfreeofpoliticalinterference.

In 2006, the Taiwan BroadcastingSystem 臺灣公共廣播電視集團 was estab-lished to become the umbrella organiza-tionforseveralpubliclyfundedtelevisionenterprises, including PTS, CTS, TaiwanIndigenous Television 原住民族電視台(TITV), Hakka TV 客家電視 and TaiwanMacroview TV 臺灣宏觀電視, which pro-duces and distributes Chinese-languageprograms about Taiwan worldwide. Thisarray of programming resources is de-signed to cater to audiences often over-lookedbycommercial television,suchasminority groups, children, senior citizensandthehearing-impaired.

The five terrestrial TV stations havebeenbroadcastinginbothdigitalandana-logformatsforanumberofyears.Digitaltechnology has enabled them to greatlyexpand their broadcasting capacity fromasingleanalogchanneltomultipledigitalones. Collectively, they now provide 16digitalchannels.

The central government has enacteda digital convergence development planto promote the popularization of digitalTV.Besidesplanningtoterminateanalogterrestrial TV’s broadcasting by 2012and encourage the production of high-definition content-rich TV programs, thegovernment will subsidize low-incomefamilies, who at that time have not re-placed analogTV sets with digital ones,toinstalldigital-to-analogconverters.

Cable TelevisionAs of June 2011, a total of 107 satel-

lite broadcasting program providers offered 281 satellite channels. The term “satellite broadcasting business” as used in Taiwan’s Satellite Broadcasting Act designates both retail direct broadcast satellite platform operators and wholesale cable television linear channel content providers distributing their programming via satellite to cable television system operators. Cable TV is overwhelmingly


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preferred to terrestrial television, as Taiwan’s mountainous terrain andhigh-rises in urban areas often result inpoorreception.NationalCommunicationsCommission (NCC) 國家通訊傳播委員會statisticsshowthatasoftheendof2010,cable televisionhadananaloghouseholdpenetration rate of 64.06 percent with5,084,491 subscribers. Cable televisionsystemoperators—ofwhich therewereatotalof62asofJune2011—typicallyof-fersubscribersafixedpackageofover90analogchannelsatamonthlyratecappedby regulatory authorities at NT$600(US$19). They adhere to more or lessthe same scheme for allocating chan-nelnumbersinaccordancewithdifferentprogramming categories while ensuringaccesstopublic-interestprogramming.

According to an April-May 2008 survey commissioned by the NCC, news channels were the most frequently viewed by cable television viewers in Taiwan. In the same year, a Nielsen survey likewise indicated that news channels had the highest ratings among all types of linear channels. The domestic news channels TVBS-N, SET 三立, CtiTV and ETTV 東森, with their large fleets of satellite

newsgathering vehicles for live coverage of important events and breaking news, were the most watched.

In July 2011, the NCC approved theapplicationofNextTVBroadcasting,Ltd.壹傳媒電視廣播股份有限公司 for a license tooperateanall-newschanneloncable-TV-likeplatforms.Inafirst,thefirmisseekingto broadcast the channel, called NextTV壹電視,viatheInternetbycooperatingwithlocal telecom operators. The channel hasalreadybecomewell-knowninTaiwanforusinganimationinitsnewsreports.

While the bulk of domestically pro-duced news programs are in Mandarin,SET operates an all-Holo channel; thegovernment-fundedHakkaTVbroadcastsin the Hakka language; and TITV, alsopublicly funded, serves Taiwan’s indig-enouscommunities.

Widely carried foreign film channels, all of which provide Chinese subtitles, in-clude Home Box Office (HBO), Cinemax and Star Movies. Live telecasts of lo-cal and foreign baseball and basketball league games, along with a wide selection of other sports programming, are avail-able on ESPN Star Sports 衛視體育台, ESPN and Videoland Sports 緯來體育台.

Presenters appearing on the Taiwan Indigenous Television channel.


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• Government Information Office: http://www.gio.gov.tw

• Central News Agency: http://www.cna.com.tw

• National Communications Commission: http://www.ncc.gov.tw

• Radio Taiwan International: http://www.rti.org.tw

• Public Television Service: http://www.pts.org.tw

• Taipei International Book Exhibition: http://www.tibe.org.tw

• Taiwan Today: http://taiwantoday.tw

• Focus Taiwan: http://focustaiwan.tw

Related

Websites

Widely carried foreign-origin children’s channels, meanwhile, include the Disney Channel and the Cartoon Network.

Digital TransitionThe NCC is requiring the cable TV

industry to move toward full digitiza-tion and is allowing competition for subscribers over a greater number of service areas than before. An amend-ment to theCableRadioandTelevisionActapprovedbytheExecutiveYuanandpending legislative approval would liftthe previous limitation of cable systemoperators to their licensed franchise ar-eas inorder tospurcompetition inareaswhere previously only one operator waslicensed. The NCC is also reserving thepower to set cable television subscrip-tionfeesatthecentralgovernmentlevel,

where in the past local authorities wereable to set caps on analog subscriptionrates, since local regulators can only setratesintheirrespectiveserviceareas.

As of December 2010, about 70 per-cent of cable system operators provideddigitalprogrammingasapremiumoptionin addition to their standard packages,with 7.7 percent (391,462) of cable TVcustomerssubscribingtosuchservicede-liveredbydigitalset-topboxes.Ofthese,276,984weredigitalpayTVsubscribers.

Anincreasingvarietyofdigitalvideoprogramming is also available via theInternet. Chunghwa Telecom 中華電信,for instance, operates an Internet Proto-col television platform known as MOD(Multimedia on Demand). Pay-per-viewmoviesandotherprogramsareofferedinadditiontoabasicchannelpackage.


Mass Media. ROC (Taiwan) Yearbook 2011 Ch15 mass media

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