The Impact of Newly-Emerging Media on Traditional Media Platforms in Taiwan: A Co-opetition Perspective

Abstract

With the development of digital convergence, new media platforms have rapidly emerged. The first was IPTV, which was followed by mobile TV. The most recent platform is the OTT video service which appeared in Taiwan in 2010. The impact of IPTV on the existing media platforms such as terrestrial TV and cable TV is different. For terrestrial TV stations, IPTV is considered to be a new media distribution platform. Although there is no “must carry” obligation for IPTV, the terrestrial TV stations are willing to be carried by IPTV. Cable operators regard CHT’s MOD service as a threat to their business. They have thus urged the government to relax the requirements of the Cable Radio and TV Act in order to compete with IPTV on a level playing field. In Taiwan, the traditional media platforms have to pay attention to the development of newly emerging media, because the ratings and revenues of the former might decrease because of the latter. Since cable TV penetration exceeds 80%, the content providers are afraid of being boycotted by the cable operators if they sell their content to other platforms such as IPTV or OTT. Therefore the IPTV and OTT video services might have difficulty acquiring good content for their viewers. In order to reach larger audiences, the content providers need to re-package their content so as to be suitable for different platforms and to avoid the implicit threat from the cable operators. This chapter discusses the competition among the players in the related TV market. It also analyses the impact of the newly emerging media on the traditional media platforms.