Abstract
As communication technologies have speed up the transmissibility of global content, Taiwan’s television programs now face stiff competition all over the world. In the face of weak domestic media industries that have failed to attract audiences, the Legislature has passed amendments to the Radio and Television Act and the Satellite Broadcasting Act in December 2015 to mitigate this problem. Aimed to protect domestic culture and promote television industries, the acts require television stations to broadcast a certain ratio of domestic programs. The year 2016 was regarded as Taiwan’s first year of OTT (over the top). Since then, many companies at home and abroad, such as KKTV, Netflix, and iQuyi, have began to provide online video services. These providers can broadcast the same content as television stations, and thus have gradually replaced the functions provided by television programs. As technology is changing the landscape of the media market, it is necessary to clarify the connection between this policy and its aforementioned purpose. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to study the validity of domestic programming ratio. It begins with an introduction to the development of relevant domestic and foreign legal systems, discussing their policy implementation obstacles in the era of new technologies. Chapter 2 examines the ratio restriction’s significance to domestic regulations and international trade, and then further explore the legitimacy of the country’s interference through such restrictions. In order to understand other foreign country’s definitions of domestic programs and how they implement their statutes, Chapter 3 discusses the legal system of the EU, Canada, China, and Korea. Chapter 4 focuses on the legal system in Taiwan. It studies the development of domestic television program policies and the challenges invoked by new technologies, while examining the validity of the policy using the principle of proportionality. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the discussion in the previous chapter, and offers some advice with regard to the ratio restrictions of domestic programming.