Taiwan's telecommunication and broadcasting regulator, the NCC, has effectuated new guidelines for its review of applications for domestic and offshore satellite radio/television program channel broadcasting permits. According to the new guidelines, all said applications are to be reviewed by a special examination committee that is to be organized by the NCC and that will consist of 13 to 15 members. Among them, 8 to 9 shall be designated by the NCC and chosen from among industry experts and scholars, 3 to 4 shall be chosen from the general public, and the remaining 2 members will be from the NCC itself. Any resolution passed at such a committee meeting will require a positive majority vote where at least two-thirds of all committee members are in attendance. All permit applications reviewed by the committee will be given a score (on a scale of 1 to 100) and those applications achieving a score of 60 or higher will be passed along to the NCC with a recommendation for NCC approval.

The NCC had, in fact, already adopted the new examination mechanisms provided by the said guidelines prior to having formally effectuated such guidelines.

As discussed in an earlier issuance of this update, the NCC formerly proposed an amendment to Taiwan's existing cable broadcasting legislation. As proposed, the draft amendment introduced significant changes to the legal framework for Taiwan's cable industry. After subsequently holding several public hearings on the issue, the NCC recently decided to make certain changes to this draft Amendment. Some of the major changes include: