Sports-betting ads need regulation: DPP lawmaker
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The government is giving people running online sports-betting commercials “a break from the law” rather than regulating them, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said yesterday, calling on the National Communications Commission (NCC) to push for passage of a draft digital communications act to hold online platform operators accountable for the content they air.
Lin made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, as he asked NCC Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) about the commission’s progress in drafting the act.
Although gambling is forbidden in Taiwan, online platforms such as YouTube are allowed to air commercials that encourage people to bet on sports games, Lin said.
FEATURE: CTS seeks Channel 52 approval, despite flak
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
On Nov. 18 last year, when National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) urged cable operators to consider “giving Taiwan Broadcasting System [TBS] a chance” to take over Channel 52, it was widely perceived as an unprecedented and inappropriate move.
Critics said that the cable channel lineup is based on negotiations between cable system operators and channel operators, not the NCC.
The commission, they said, has no right to intervene in negotiations and should not compromise its neutrality by publicly endorsing a network or channel such as suggesting that TBS, the nation’s public broadcasting group, follow CTi News in controlling Channel 52.
The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that it would not begin deliberating over Homeplus Digital Co’s application to fill the vacant Channel 52 with Chinese Television System’s (CTS) news channel until it has consulted with local government officials.
Homeplus, the nation’s largest multiple system operator, had previously proposed moving Global News from Channel 85 to Channel 52, but it retracted the application without providing an explanation.
On Monday last week, Homeplus submitted a new application, proposing that the CTS News and Info channel fill the vacancy.
On the same day, the commission rejected four cable operators’ applications to occupy Channel
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