NCC greenlights Next TV license application

Source： Taiwan Today
By Kwangyin Liu
Photo: Two viewers watch a Next TV program July 20 reporting NCC approval of the company's application for a news channel operating license in Taiwan. (CNA)

The National Communications Commission granted a Taiwan operating license July 20 to Next TV, a news channel run by Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai.

“The decision is based on Lai’s promises to clean up the channel’s animated news and establish an ethics committee within his media group by the end of the year,” an NCC official said.

According to the NCC, animation accounted for 2.9 percent of news footage submitted by Next TV for review. Topics covered include health care, entertainment, international affairs and financial news, in addition to the more controversial crime news.

Lai also promised to meet a handful of self-regulatory requirements, the NCC said, including ridding animated news of explicit depictions of sex, violence and nudity, avoiding voiceovers for news characters and limiting animated materials to under 15 percent of content.

“The channel must adhere to its promises to keep the news clean and broadcast within time limits,” the NCC said.

NCC approval comes two years after turning down Next TV Broadcasting Ltd.'s 2009 application on the grounds that its animated news contained overly graphic details, especially involving crime, violence and sex.

Next TV will likely be broadcast via Chunghwa Telecom’s media-on-demand service, which has an audience of 700,000, the NCC said.

The TV channel is the latest venture for Lai’s media group, which introduced Next weekly magazine to Taiwan in 2001 and the Apple Daily in 2003.

Activist groups boycotting Next TV said they would keep an eye on broadcaster's behavior. “We hope Lai can keep his word,” said a representative of the Awakening Foundation, an organization promoting women’s rights. (THN)