POPULAT ION 23.6 million TOTA L HOUSEHOLDS 8.7 million TV HOUSEHOLDS 7.4 million PAY-TV SUBSCRIBERS 6.7 million PAY TV PENETRAT ION 88.5% million CABLE SUBSCRIBERS 5.5 million CABLE TV PENETRAT ION 72.7% DIGITA L PAY-TV SUBSCRIBERS 6 million TOTA L BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS 24.9 million FIXED BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS 5.8 million WIRELESS BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS 19.4 million FIXED BROADBAND PENETRAT ION 67.3% WIRELESS BROADBAND PENETRAT ION 81.6% *Source of Information: Media Partners Asia.
Cable television is prevalent in Taiwan, as a result of cheap subscription rates (typically around NT$550, or US$15 a month) and the paucity of free-toair television, which comprises about 20 channels. Programming is mostly in Mandarin and Taiwanese with a few channels in Hakka or English. There are also programms in other foreign-language, mainly east Asian and south-east Asian languages. Miniseries, called Taiwanese drama, are popular. There is a dedicated station for Taiwan’s Hakka minority as well as the arrival in 2005 of an aboriginal channel. There are around 100 channels with most stations being dedicated to a particular genre; such as game shows, news, anime, movies, sports and documentaries. Almost all programs are in the original language with traditional Chinese subtitles.
Digital television launched terrestrially throughout Taiwan on 1 July 2004. Currently, there are simulcasts ofanalogue and digital television. Taiwan plans to replace analogue broadcasting with a digital system by 2014 after the analogue cable broadcast terminated. The Republic of China Cabinet approved a measure mandating that all new televisions areto be equipped with a digital television tuner from 2006.
The cable television system comprises around one hundred different channels, ranging from news, sport, variety, game, music, children’s, foreign, movie and documentary channels. The Taiwanese government is promoting digital signal television, provided through a set-top box. The analogue signal of air television was turned off on June 30, 2012.
In a recent key meeting with government officials, political leaders, industry regulators, business heads and international and local experts in Taipei has called for removal of investment constraints in the multichannel video industry, and increased attention to online piracy, as the Taiwan market reshapes itself as an all-digital (and often mobile) regional communications hub.
In a discussion convened by regionalindustry body CASBAA, it was heard that a major hurdle blocking further development of the Taiwan digital video industry is the rigid application of the “No state/No party ownership” rule prohibiting any “government official, political party, or elected official to invest, directly orindirectly”, in cable system operators. The meeting heard that the rule is interpreted to prohibit acquisition of cable equities by companies where their corporate parents, several levels up, have even a single share owned by a government entity.
“Because of these rigid restrictions, only introduced in 2005, urgently needed mergers between telecom carriers (fixed-line and mobile) and cable TV operators have proved almost impossible,” said Christopher Slaughter, the CEO of CASBAA at the end of the meeting.
”Slaughter added that the “No state/No party” investment rule flies in the face of global industry experience over the past 20 years. “This is preventing Taiwan from enjoying the most compelling aspects of the twenty-first century media revolution,” he said.
Proliferation of online piracy networks were cited as another major problem. Representatives of startup OTT operators trying to market bouquets of programming to Taiwan consumers observed they faced huge obstacles, as long as pirate networks based offshore were free to steal the programmes and distribute them for free.
They warned that thedevelopment of innovative, indigenous Taiwan programming was at risk. By end 2017, online video in Taiwan should attract 15% of US$120 billion in revenues accrued by TV/telecoms industry from traditional free-to-air TV, pay-TV and OTT services, according to research house MPA.
In the meantime, the rising level of mobile broadband penetration in Taiwan is benefitting cable TV and IPTV operators such as the dominant state-owned telco Chunghwa Telecom as they develop their own locallanguage, multiscreen services.
No longer limited to traditional TV viewing, Taiwan’s mobile broadband subscribers are downloading apps and logging-in to pay-TV programming of all kinds. The largest group of OTT followers in Taiwan are young women aged 18-34, some 42% of the total. Together with 18-34 year-old males, almost 70% of OTT subscribers are “binge” viewers.
While the CASBAA meeting was generally upbeat, warnings of the cost of revenue leakage i.e. piracy) were a recurring theme. “The hugely damaging level of content piracy is not only holding back growth of both traditional pay-TV and innovative OTT offerings, but also the overall economic development of Taiwan as a whole,” said John Medeiros, Chief Policy Officer, CASBAA.
“Living with massive revenue leakage from piracy while blocking sufficient investment in the digital economy, Taiwan is falling behind.”
