Media of Taiwan

The media in Taiwan is considered to be one of the freest and most competitive in Asia. Cable TV usage is high (around 80%) and there is also a wide selection of newspapers available covering most political viewpoints.

Cable television

Main article: Television in Taiwan

Cable television is prevalent in Taiwan, as a result of cheap subscription rates (typically around NT$550, or USD$15 a month) and the paucity of free-to-air television, which comprises four channels. Programming is mostly in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Japanese, with some English, Korean and other foreign language 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. There are around 100 channels with most stations being dedicated to a particular genre; such as game shows, news, anime, movies, sports and documentaries. Almost all programs are in the original language with traditional Chinese subtitles.

The cable television system comprises around one hundred different channels, ranging from news, sport, variety, game, music, children's, foreign, movie and documentary channels.

The Republic of China 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.

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.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• 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.
• Voice of Han- Military Radio Station.
• Fuxing Radio- Military Radio Station.
• Taipei Broadcasting Station
• National Education Radio

Wikipedia's Taiwan Radio Station Table (in Chinese)

Newspapers

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Apple Daily (Pingguo Ribao) - Tabloid
• Central Daily News (Zhongyang Ribao)
• Central News Agency (Republic of China)(the official central news agency of the Republic of China).
• China Times (Zhongguo Shibao)
• China Times (Night) (Zhongshi Wanbao)
• Commercial Times (Gongshang Ribao)
• 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:

• The China Post (Yingwen Zhongguo Youbao, Chinese: 英文中國郵報)
• Taipei Times (Taibei Shibao, Chinese: 台北時報)
• Taiwan News

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.

Internet

Taiwan is one of the most wired places 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.

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. Sensational headlines are often picked up.

Taiwan has some online resources available in English:

• 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

See also

• Culture of Taiwan
• Taiwanese drama

References

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

Ma, R. (2003). Status of media in Taiwan. In Encyclopedia of international media and communications (Vol. 4, pp. 329–339). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. * Ringo Ma