News
NCC rejects efforts to shift TVBS cable news channel
The National Communications Commission (NCC) is refusing applications from several major cable TV providers to move TVBS News from the main block of cable news channels. The statement comes after eight cable operators applied last month to give TVBS News' channel 55 slot to Mirror TV.Commission Chairman Chen Yao-xiang says the applications were rejected "in the interest of consumers' rights, market competition, and content diversity."
According to commission vice chairman Wong Bo-tsung, the operators failed to present compelling evidence to support such a move, while local governments in Hsinchu and Miaoli expressed opposition to moving TVBS News to channel 149 or 158.
The cable providers had been citing content authorization fee disputes for their decision to request to move the channel. However, opposition lawmakers had been arguing that the proposed channel switch was as part of a broader attempt by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to sideline TVBS News in favour of Mirror TV.
Meanwhile, opposition Kuomintang (KMT) legislators are urging the NCC to revoke Mirror TV's operating license due to recent scandals about how it got the license in the first place.KMT lawmakers are also lashing out at NCC chair Chen Yao-xiang for what they said was a failureto play an impartial role as his office requires, saying that he should step down.They say after Chen took office in 2020, the independent organization has become "the ruling DPP's NCC".
Meanwhile NPP lawmaker Chen Jiao-hua has put forward a motion requesting the legislature to form an investigative team to look into Mirror TV's operations.Chen last week played three audio files at the Legislative Yuan, which were all recordings of former Mirror chairman Pei Wei telling others that President Tsai Ing-wen and Premier Su Zhen-chang had pressured the NCC to issue the license to his TV station.
