Market Competition and the Media Performance of Taiwan's Cable Television Industry

Abstract

Using industrial organization as the theoretical framework, this study examines the relation between market competition and the media performance of Taiwan's cable television industry. The media performance of cable television systems is defined as the subscribers' satisfaction with program service, customer service, and community service. A telephone survey was conducted to collect data for the study. This study's findings in general support a positive relation between market competition and media performance, which accords with most previous studies.

Market Competition and Media Performance: Reexamining the Media Performance of the Cable Television Industry in Taiwan

“…Therefore, evaluations of the performance of a cable television system should concern not only the products Downloaded by [Mount Allison University 0Libraries] at 05:58 06 October 2014 it provides, but also the services offered to its subscribers and to the community (C. Y. Chen, 1999;Chipty, 2001;Jacobs, 1995;Li, 2004).…”

“…With more franchise areas exhibiting a monopolistic market structure, scholars are becoming increasingly concerned with the performance of cable television system operators in Taiwan. Li (2004), in a study on this issue, found a positive relation between market competition and the media performance of Taiwan's cable television industry. However, Li (2004) employed only one dimension to measure the media performance; namely, the subscribers' satisfaction with program service, customer service, and community service.…”

“…Taiwan's Cable Television Law has divided the island into 51 franchise areas, and the governing organization, the Government Information Office (GIO), has tried to issue more than one license in each franchise area to prevent monopolization in the market. However, several recent studies have shown that a monopolistic market structure has come to characterize more than one half of these areas (P. H. Chen, 2002;Li, 2004). With more franchise areas exhibiting a monopolistic market structure, scholars are becoming increasingly concerned with the performance of cable television system operators in Taiwan.…”

“…However, Li (2004) employed only one dimension to measure the media performance; namely, the subscribers' satisfaction with program service, customer service, and community service. Because there are limitations to such an approach, our study here uses IO theory to extend Li's (2004) study and thereby to provide more comprehensive measures of the media performance of Taiwan's cable television industry.…”

Exploring Performance Determinants of China’s Cable Operators and OTT Service Providers in the Era of Digital Convergence—From the Perspective of an Industry Platform

“…The extant literature on industry convergence generally uses concept frameworks and case studies [15][16][17], although a few quantitative investigations have focused on measuring industry convergence [2,18]. The perspective of an industry platform is useful to understand firm conduct in a converging industry [19,20], while the traditional theoretical framework of industrial organization enables analysis of firm conduct in industries where market boundaries are clear [21]. With this theoretical perspective, the paper analyzes two potential industry platforms in China's converging video industry, i.e., OTT (over the top) service providers and cable operators.…”