Abstract
With the advancement of the Internet and digital technologies, digital convergence has become a significant trend in the communications industry. In terms of technology, digital convergence means the integration between different digital products; it also symbolizes the vertical integration between different communications industries. Nonetheless, digital convergence has brought rigorous challenges to the existing regulatory framework, which divides up the landscape based on traditional services and technologies. Moreover, such convergence may enable businesses to further leverage their market power to neighboring markets, and, thus, lead to antitrust concerns. In order to cope with regulatory issues with regard to digital convergence, the National Communications Commission (NCC) just enacted the draft of Communications Management Law. IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) is a type of multimedia TV service that transmits programs as IP package via the broadband Network. Contrary to the consuming type of traditional TV and broadcast, IPTV enables people to choose the TV programs they like at any time and any places, realizing the actual interaction between media-provider and media-consumer. With the application of IPTV, it is more efficient to combine TV, Communication and PC realms together. Just as the mobile phone facilitate our communication life and release the restriction of time and places, the newly-developed IPTV service free us from the restriction of the TV schedule. Combined with the three major realms, TV, Communication and Internet, IPTV service can be depicted as a triple play application and creates new relationships and markets for different industries. This paper inquires a critical problem during convergence of telecommunication and cables industry—the governance framework of broadband infrastructure. This paper analyzes Taiwan’s policy on Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and laws and regulation that combine Cable Broadband TV Law, Copyright Law and Telecommunications Law. Besides, this paper plans to compare Internet Protocol TV and cable TV development in Taiwan, accompanying with relevant rules and regulations from United States, Japan and Korea’s current policies and regulations, and hopes to propose certain suggestions on the draft of Communications Management Law.