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Chapter Law Content

Title: Cable Radio and Television Act CH
Category: National Communications Commission(國家通訊傳播委員會)
Chapter III Regulations of Operations
Article 23
System operators shall not commission the operations to a third party.
System operators shall submit application form and operations plan after the change to the central regulatory agency for approval in the event of one of the following:
1. Transfer of business or accepting the transfer of business
2. Merger with other system operators
3. Investment made to other system operators. The same rule applies to investment made through affiliates, where the definition of affiliate shall be refer to the Company Act
After the merger among system operators, the validity of the operating license shall be calculated based on the validity of surviving entity’s operating license. However, if all of the original system operators are extinguished after the merger, the validity of the new company’s operating license shall be calculated by merged company’s operating license, the one that has a longer validity.
While making approval / rejection of the application mentioned in Paragraph 2, the central regulatory agency shall take the requirement of the promotion of effective market competition, protection of consumers’ benefits and rights and other public interests into consideration. The approval / rejection standards shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
Article 24
The number of subscribers of the system operators, their affiliates, and their directly or indirectly controlled system operators shall not exceed one-third of the total number of subscribers in the nation.
The said total number of subscribers in the nation shall be announced by the central regulatory agency.
System operators shall report the number of their subscribers for the previous three months in January, April, July, and October of each year to the central regulatory agency.
The affiliates referred to in this Act shall be determined in accordance with provisions of affiliated enterprises in Company Act.
Article 25
Programs shall maintain their completeness and be distinguishable from advertisements.
Without prior agreements, system operators shall not, on their own, combine channels or terminate transmission channels.
Programs provided by system operators and their affiliated enterprises shall not exceed 25 percent of the usable channels.
System operators shall display their system logo on the screen of the programs transmitted by the said operators.
Article 26
During the transmission and processing of cable radio and/or television signals by a system operator, the radiation leakage shall not exceed the maximum amount allowed by the central regulatory agency.
Article 27
To broadcast specific programs that shall be encrypted by law, system operators shall report the encryption method to the central regulatory agency for approval.
Article 28
System operators shall install the broadcast channel programs in locations designated by the regulatory agency without changing the content and format of channel program. The encrypted channel programs shall be installed together with deciphering equipments.
The abovementioned designated location shall be limited to two locations only.
Article 29
System operators shall carry out the operations according to its operations plan. When a change is made to an application form and/or operations plan after the issuance of operating license, system operator shall submit its application for approval change to or report it to the central regulatory agency. The approval / reporting items and approval standards shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
When the content of abovementioned changes is classified as company registration, the system operator shall carry out the corporate establishment or registration of changes upon the change of approval or notification made to the central regulatory agency.
When a system operator applies for a channel planning and a change on its classification according to Paragraph 1, the approval regulations shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
Article 30
Once every three years, the central regulatory agency shall assess the execution of the operations plan submitted by a system operator. No assessment shall be conducted on the year of license renewal.
Where the assessment result shows underachievement and a must to make corrections, the central regulatory agency shall command the system operator to make corrections by a prescribed deadline. If the system operator fails to do so, the central regulatory agency shall abolish a part or the whole of its operating approval.
The assessment procedures and examination standards mentioned in preceding two Paragraphs shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
Article 31
After the expiry date of the operating license, a system operator shall, if it wishes to carry on the operations, submit its application of license renewal to the central regulatory agency within a six-month period at a year prior to the expiry date.
To review system operator’s applications of operating license renewal, the central regulatory agency shall take below items into considerations:
1. Evaluation of the execution of the operations plan and any improvements;
2. Future operations plan
3. Financial status
4. Whether the operations conform to local residents’ interests and demand.
5. System operator’s reward / punishment record and other matters that can affect the operations.
Regarding the results of abovementioned review, a written notification shall be sent to the system operator to request it to make corrections by a prescribed deadline if the central regulatory agency sees a malfunctioned operation or a necessity to make improvements on the system operator’s future operations plan. If no correction is made by the prescribed deadline, the application shall be rejected.
During the review and improvement period, the central regulatory agency may issue a temporary license to the system operator, where the maximum validity of the said license shall not exceed a year and is limited to one time only.
For system operator who obtains temporary license in accordance with preceding Paragraph, the central regulatory agency shall, upon the completion of review or corrections, issue the operating license and the validity of the license shall be counted from the next day after the expiry date of original operating license.
The items and standards of review mentioned in preceding Paragraph 2 shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
A system operator whose application of operating license renewal is rejected shall submit written documents mentioned in Subparagraph 3 through Subparagraph 7 of Paragraph 3 of Article 32 to the central regulatory agency one month prior to the termination of the operation.
Upon the acceptance of system operator’s submission mentioned in preceding Paragraph, the central regulatory agency may adopt the approval / rejection standards of Paragraph 4 of Article 23 for system operator’s subscribers undertaken by other system operators.
Article 32
When a system operator plans to suspend or terminate the operation of the cable radio and/or television system, it shall submit a written report to the central regulatory agency, and a copy to the local regulatory agency (municipality or county / city government), six months in advance. It shall also notify its subscribers three months in advance.
The maximum period of abovementioned operation suspension is six months.
The written documents for suspending or terminating the operations mentioned in Paragraph 1 shall include below information:
1. Reasons of suspending or terminating the operations
2. Period of suspending the operations
3. Subscribers’ right and benefit protection plan and transfer plan
4. Cable television network and cable processing plan
5. Suspending or terminating business promotion plan
6. Other system operators’ letter of undertaking subscribers’ benefits and rights
7. Other items, as specified by the central regulatory agency
While accepting system operator’s application mentioned in Paragraph 1, the central regulatory agency shall, regarding the approval of other system operators undertaking the subscribers as mentioned in Subparagraph 3 and Subparagraph 6 of preceding Paragraph, adopt the approval / rejection standards specified in Paragraph 4 of Article 23.
Article 33
A system operator shall concurrently re-transmit programs and advertisements of legally established terrestrial television stations. The system operator shall not alter the forms, contents, and channel positions of these programs and advertisements and shall include these channels in its basic channels; however, the channel positions may be altered with approval by the central regulatory agency.
No licensing fees shall be paid for the aforementioned re-transmission, which shall not constitute copyright infringement by the system operator.
To protect the languages and cultures of the Hakka and indigenous peoples, the central regulatory agency may designate, as conditions require, cable radio and/or television systems to provide free of charge specific channels for broadcasting programs in Hakka and indigenous languages.
In order to ensure transparency of proceedings and safeguard the rights of the citizens, the system operator shall broadcast parliamentary proceedings of the Legislative Yuan free of charge, subject to the channel location as designated by the competent authority, and shall not change their form; the programs shall be listed as a basic channel.
The broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings referred to in the preceding paragraph refers to television programs broadcast in accordance with Article 5, paragraph 3, of the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan.
Article 34
System operators shall not broadcast the programs or advertisements of a channel provider without permission from the central regulatory agency.
Article 35
System operators shall transmit programs and advertisements of channel providers completely and shall not change its formats and contents. However, this is not limited to the broadcast of advertisements if both parties have made a written agreement in advance. Besides, the advertisement content shall not violate compulsory or prohibitive regulation, impair the physical or mental health of children or juvenile, and disrupt public order or adversely affect good social customers.
Article 36
Programs and advertisements transmitted by cable radio and/or television shall acquire legal authorization in accordance with Copyright Act or other relevant regulations.
If the system operator and channel provider have taken household as the calculation basis for discussing the authorization terms, their discussion shall be based on the number of household announced by the central regulatory agency.
Article 37
System operators shall set up fair, reasonable, and unbiased on / off shelf standards for satellite channel program provider, other type channel program provider, foreign satellite broadcasting business, and wireless television business, and implementations shall be carried out according to the said standards.
The aforementioned on / off shelf standards shall be submitted and reported to the central regulatory agency three months prior to the implementation. Any amendment shall also adopt the same rule.
Should the on / off shelf standards mentioned in Paragraph 1 disrupt the fair competition or consumers’ rights and benefits, the central regulatory agency shall command system operators to make corrections by a prescribed deadline.
System operators, their affiliated enterprises or directly or indirectly controlled operators shall not, with improper means, cause satellite channel program business, other type channel program business, foreign satellite broadcasting business and wireless television business to discriminate against other system operators or other broadcasting platforms business for public audio-visual reception.
The scope of the broadcasting platforms for public audio-visual reception mentioned in preceding Paragraph shall be announced by the central regulatory agency.
Article 38
A system operator who has established its own shopping channel shall acquire the satellite channel program business or other type channel program business license in accordance with Satellite Broadcasting Act.
Limit to the number of shopping channels within system operator’s broadcasting system shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
System operators who provide cable radio and television services with digitization technology shall not charge subscribers any fees for the shopping channel within its broadcasting system.
Article 39
System operators shall not use inserted characters, except under the following circumstances:
1. To report a natural disaster or emergency;
2. To publicize public service information;
3. To announce a change of channel;
4. As stipulated by other laws or regulations.
Specific use principles and methods of abovementioned inserted characters, the scope of public service information and other regulatory matters shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
Article 40
In the event of a natural disaster or emergency, the regulatory agencies may direct system operators to stop transmitting programs or designate specific programs or messages to be transmitted, in order to safeguard public safety and welfare.
When the situation mentioned in the preceding Paragraph no longer exists, the regulatory agencies shall immediately notify the system operators to revert to transmission of regular programming.
Measures for dealing with natural disasters and emergencies mentioned in Paragraph 1 shall be established by the central regulatory agency.
Article 41
System operators shall provide government agencies, schools, groups and citizens more than one public channel to transmit public welfare, artistic, cultural and social educational programs without any charge. The planning and use of public channels shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
The public channel provided by a system operator shall not have any one of the following actions:
1. To broadcast a program or advertisement that is financed, produced or sponsored by the government and is related to persons planning to participate in campaign.
2. To broadcast a program or advertisement that is financed, produced or sponsored by the government and is based on the topics of persons planning to participate in campaign.
3. To broadcast a placement marketing program commissioned by the government.
4. To broadcast a program that is commissioned by the government and does not reveal messages financed, produced, sponsored or subsidized by the government.
5. To broadcast commercial advertisements.
Article 42
System operators shall arrange at least one local channel, which provides local residents the programs that conform to their interest and demand in areas designated by the central regulatory agency.
Operators of abovementioned local channels shall obtain satellite channel program business or other channel program business license in accordance with the Satellite Broadcasting Act.
Article 43
System operators shall set up an exclusive channel that will carry the system operator's name, logo, license number, telephone number of subscribers' complaint hotline, business address, a list of all channels, the license period for each channel, and the programs transmitted on each channel.
Article 44
System operators shall report the subscription fees to special municipality or county (city) government within a month after the 1st of August every year. The special municipality or county (city) government will examine it in accordance with the standards of service fees enacted by the central regulatory agency and then make an announcement accordingly.
Special municipality and county (city) government shall establish fee review committee to approve abovementioned subscription fees. If special municipality or county (city) government has not established fee review committee, it shall then be exercise by the central regulatory agency.
The accounting system and its standard procedures shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
Article 45
System operators shall set aside 1 percent of their annual operating revenues and submit it to the central regulatory agency for the establishment of a special fund.
The amount of money provided by the system operator, as mentioned in the preceding Paragraph, shall be used by the central regulatory agency for the following purposes:
1. Thirty percent shall be used by the central regulatory agency for the popularization and development of cable radio and television;
2. Forty percent shall be allocated to the local governments of special municipalities or counties/cities for the construction and maintenance of radio and television relevant piping, popularization service in remote countries, subsidy for disadvantaged minority groups’ television fees, and cable radio and television related local cultural and public facilities.
3. Thirty percent shall be donated to the Public Television Service Foundation.
The date of suspending the implementation of Subparagraph 3 of preceding Paragraph shall be established by Executive Yuan. Starting from the date of suspending the implementation, the amount originally donated to the Public Television Service Foundation shall be transferred to the central regulatory agency for the use mentioned Subparagraph 1 of preceding Paragraph.
Regulations governing the establishment, payment, use, and management of the special fund mentioned in Paragraph 1 shall be established by the Executive Yuan.
Article 46
System operators that provide or broadcast content services, with exception to channel programs, shall follow below rules:
1. To provide the name, summary, rating and fees of the content service;
2. Restricted content services shall be encrypted or be offered with other appropriate protection measures.
If the content service, with exception to channel programs, provided or broadcasted by the system operator may disrupt public order or adversely affect good social customs, the system operator shall stop offering or broadcasting the content service upon receipt of the notification of the respective regulatory agency.
If the content services provided by the system operator or other content service provider other than channel programs violate compulsory or prohibitive regulations under the law, the respective regulatory agency shall handle it by law.
Article 47
To facilitate the provision of cable broadcasting digital service, the central regulatory agency may announce its digital service upgrades plan.
The central regulatory agency may seek for or designate system operators to, within specific experiment area, provide cable radio and / or television business or other emerging services with its digitization technology. The area and period of conducting digitization experiment, experiment plan, category of basic digital channels, examination of quantity and fees, evaluation of experiment plans and other relevant matters shall be enacted by the central regulatory agency.
Article 48
System operator shall provide all subscribers the cable radio and/or television service with digitization technology while applying for the renewal of operating license for the first time after the implementation of the amendment of this Act on the 18th of December 2015. The central regulatory agency shall not issue renewed operating license to those who fail to do so.
System operators shall, within three months after the implementation of the amendment of this Act on the 18th of December 2015, submit phased implementation plan of providing subscribers the cable radio and/or television service with digitization technology and apply for a change of operations plan to the central regulatory agency.
Article 49
System operators shall not reject, without justification, requests from the local populace to pay for the visual and/or audio reception of cable radio and/or television.
Article 50
System operators shall sign written contracts with their subscribers for visual and audio services.
The written contracts mentioned in the preceding Paragraph shall be printed on the reverse side of the receipts issued by the system operators to their subscribers.
The central regulatory agency shall publicly announce matters that should or should not be included in the standard subscription contract.
General clauses that violate the published standard contract are invalid. The validity of such standard contract shall be determined in accordance with Article 16 of the Consumer Protection Act.
The contents of the contract mentioned in Paragraph 1 shall include:
1. Rates and restrictions on fee adjustment;
2. Numbers and names of channels, and the expiration date of each channel contract;
3. Selectable payment method and deadline, and the methods of handling delayed payments.
4. Protection measure for subscribers who already pre-paid the television fees.
5. Restrictions on the use of subscribers' basic data;
6. Conditions for giving compensation to subscribers whose rights to visual and audio reception are impaired in the event that the system operator is penalized with termination of transmission, abolishment or revocation of operating permit, or confiscation of facilities;
7. Conditions for giving compensation to subscribers whose rights to visual and audio reception are likely to be impaired in the event that the signals of the subscribed channels are interrupted without justification;
8. Validity of the contract;
9. Subscribers’ complaint hotlines, and;
10. Other items, as specified by the central regulatory agency.
System operators who provide channels other than the basic channels and other value-added services shall set up fair and reasonable price and service conditions. Should the said party damage subscribers’ rights and benefits, the central regulatory agency may command it to make changes.
System operators shall promptly handle subscribers’ complaints and shall retain the files of such complaints for six months. The regulatory agency may request system operator to respond to the subscribers in writing or in relevant programs.
For subscribers who have purchased system operators’ visual and audio reception services or other value-added service through digital terminal equipment, system operators shall send notable messages to subscribers before commencing the charging.
Article 51
A system operator may terminate program transmission to any subscriber who does not pay the subscription fee by the due date and still does not pay after being given periodic past-due notification.
The right of claim for preceding fees is valid for five years.
Article 52
When contracts of audio-visual services are terminated, system operators shall remove all related cables within one month. If the cables are not removed within the specified period of time, the owners or occupants of the land or the buildings may remove the cables and request reimbursement for the cost of dismantling and other necessary expenditures from the system operators.
Article 53
Should the regulatory agency determine that a cable radio and/or television system is inappropriately operated so as to impair, or be likely to impair, the rights and interests of the subscribers, it shall notify the said system operator to make corrections within a specified period of time or take other necessary measures.
Article 54
A person who intercepts or receives content transmitted by a system without the agreement of the system operator shall pay the basic subscription fee and be liable for civil damages compensation.
In the event that the time period of unauthorized reception cannot be proven, the fees referred to in the preceding Paragraph shall be calculated as two years of the basic rate.
Article 55
Regarding dispute over the channel transmission, terms of authorization and determination of the number of households between system operator and channel provider, or disputes among system operators, an adjustment request may be sent to the central regulatory agency. Civil litigation can be made by law for the failure of adjustment.