Media of Taiwan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The media in Taiwan is one of the freest and most competitive in Asia. Although there are officially laws which prohibit advocating Taiwan independence or communism, these are not generally enforced. Cable TV usage is high (around 80%) and there is also a wide selection of newspapers available covering most political viewpoints.

Contents 1 Cable Television 2 Radio 3 Newspapers 4 Magazines and Periodicals 5 Internet 6 Media Dispute 7 See also 8 References

[edit] Cable Television

As noted above, cable television is prevalent in Taiwan, as a result of cheap subscription rates (typically around NT$550 a month) and the paucity of free-to-air television, which comprises just three channels. Programming is mostly in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese, with some Japanese and English channels. 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. Almost all programs are in the original language with traditional Chinese subtitles. While the channels offered by cable differ slightly according to the area, the following stations are generally available:

• The Aboriginal Channel (a mixture of Aboriginal languages and Mandarin, occasionally with some Taiwanese)
• Animal Planet
• Animax - Anime Channel
• Azio TV
• Cartoon Network
• Channel V
• China Television Company (CTV) (FTA channel also available terrestrially)
• Chinese Television System (CTS) (FTA channel also available terrestrially)
• CSTV Group (CSTV Group) (FTA channel also available terrestrially)
• Cinemax (mostly English movies)
• CNN (English, no subtitles)
• CTI TV 5 Channels including News, entertainment, variety, Asia, and international
• Da-Ai Television - Buddhist - Tsu-Chi
• Discovery Channel
• Disney Channel
• ERA NEWS
• ESPN - Sports
• ETTV
• ETTV News
• ETTV Movie -English
• ETTV Movie -Chinese
• ETTV S - Political news, stocks, and talk shows (as of August, has been reinstated)
• ETTV Variety
• ETTV Drama
• ETTV Yoyo - Children's programming
• ETTV Shopping - Channels 1,2,3, and 5
• ETTV Mainland China (only in the Americas)
• ETTV America (only in the Americas)
• ETTV Asia News (only in the Americas)
• ETTV America News (only in the Americas)
• ETTV America Drama (only in the Americas)
• ETTV America Yoyo (only in the Americas)
• Fokuang Television - Buddhist - Fokuangshan
• Formosa Television (FTS)
• Good TV - Christian
• GTV - 3 channels including variety, drama, and GTV 1st Channel
• Hakka TV (Hakka)
• Hallmark - Mainly English Movies
• HBO (mostly English movies)
• Hollywood Channel (Taiwan)
• Hong Guan Television
• JETTV - Japanese Programs
• MTV Chinese
• National Geographic Channel
• NHK - Japanese
• NTV (Japanese)
• Phoenix Channel
• Public Television Service (PTS)
• SET-TV Total of 4 channels (Taiwanese, drama, new, & variety)
• Star Movies
• Star Movies Chinese
• Star Sports - Sports
• Super TV- includes 5 channels Chinese, movie, Star TV, family, and sports
• Super X
• USTV News (Fei-dan)
• USTV Economic (Fei-dan)
• Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) (FTA channel also available terrestrially)
• Television Broadcasts Limited
• TopTV
• TVBS News
• TVBS-G - Entertainment
• TVBS Variety
• TVBS Asia (outside of Taiwan only)
• Videoland Television Network is a broadcasting company operating under the flagship of the Koos Group in Taiwan. Videoland is one of Taiwan's major satellite television providers, offering seven channels of programming on Videoland Sports, Videoland Japan, Videoland Movie Channel, Videoland General Entertainment Channel (On-TV), Videoland Drama Channel, Videoland MaxTV and Videoland Kids
• Yo Yo Tv kids channel with cartoons for young children

There are also a few 'extra' channels which are not available in all areas:

• BBC World (English, no subtitles)
• CNN International (English, no subtitles)
• Star World (English, no subtitles)^*

^*- Used it with Star TV set-up box decoder/receiver to put the Chinese subtitle.

The ROC government is pushing for a switch to digital television services in the near future - this will be provided through a set-top box and will increase the number of available channels.

[edit] Radio

There are many stations across the FM and AM spectrum broadcasting a wide variety of programming. Talk-shows, popular music and classic songs are some of the most frequently heard subjects. Exclusively Taiwanese language stations have enjoyed a surge in popularity since the end of the martial law era and regulations restricting the use of languages other than Mandarin Chinese.

• Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) - national and regional networks
• CBS - Radio Taiwan International - national broadcaster; also beams services to mainland China and the rest of the world with programmes in various languages and Chinese dialects
• ICRT - Taiwan's only national English-language station
• Public Radio System (PRS) - government-run; travel, weather, social information
• Hit Fm and Kiss Radio Taiwan both play popular Chinese music.
• UFO network- second largest station in Taiwan. Very popular. Plays all different kinds of music such as C-pop, J-pop, and American pop.

[edit] Newspapers

• Apple Daily (Pingguo Ribao) - Tabloid
• Central Daily News (Zhongyang Ribao)
• China Times (Zhongguo Shibao)
• China Times (Night) (Zhongshi Wanbao)
• Commercial Times (Gongshang Ribao)
• Da Chen Bao (Da Chen Bao) - Entertainment news
• DigiTimes (Dianzi Shibao) - IT industry news
• Economic Daily News (Jingji Ribao)
• Independent Evening News (Zili Wanbao)
• Liberty Times (Ziyou Shibao)
• Mandarin Daily News (Guoyu Ribao) - Children's newspaper, written with Zhuyin accompanying the text
• Min Sheng Bao (Min Sheng Bao)
• Taiwan Daily (Taiwan Ribao)
• Taiwan Times (Taiwan Shibao)
• United Daily News (Lianhe Bao)

There are also three English language newspapers:

• China Post (Yingwen Zhongguo Youbao)
• Taipei Times (Taibei Shibao)
• Taiwan News

[edit] Magazines and Periodicals

In 1988, there were only about 3,400 magazine publishers in the country. Today, the number has been rapidly increasing to 4,827 (by August 2006). Magazines are various in different contents, including business, politics, entertainment, languages, lifestyle, technology, health, cooking, automobiles, women, education, traveling etc.

[edit] Internet

Taiwan is one of the most wired countries in the world - broadband or cable modem access is relatively cheap and fast. In 2005 there were 13.8 million internet users and 2.8 million webhosts in Taiwan (for a total population of 22.9 million). A popular feature of even small towns are internet cafes (Chinese: 網咖, Pinyin: wǎngkā), which are often 24-hour and sell a variety of food and drink so that the mainly teenage online gamers who inhabit them do not have to stray too far from their monitors. Taiwan websites use the .tw domain.

[edit] Media Dispute

Due to the rapid change and quick development, the media in Taiwan have been in an acrimonious competition environment. In a population of 23-million market, the country has 7 twenty-four-hour news stations (compare to 3 in the US, 3 in UK, and 0 in Japan), more than 4,000 magazine publishers, and approximately 200 radio stations, and about 2,500 newspaper publishers; moreover, Taiwan also has the highest density of Satellite News Gathering (SNG) trucks, 23 million people share 82 trucks while 120 million/71 in Japan, 7 million/1 in Hong Kong, 48 million/40 in Korea, 1 billion/300 in India. However, in order to earn a higher Nielsen rating in such a competitive market, sometimes the shows tend to include sexual and violent contents.

Taiwan has some online resources available in English:

• Buxiban.com - A resource for ESL teachers in Taiwan and China
• China News Agency - Publicly owned news agency based in Taipei
• Forumosa - An online forum for all things Taiwan
• Government Information Office - News and announcements from the ROC government

[edit] See also

• Culture of Taiwan
• Taiwanese drama

[edit] References

• BBC Country Profile: Taiwan
• CIA - The World Factbook: Taiwan