Based on Article 3’s Item #1 of Retail Rate Standards of Cable Radio and Cable Television System Providers (which will be referred to as retail rates below), which states “the basic stations retail rates for cable radio and cable television system providers (which will be referred to as system providers below) cannot exceed 600NT a month per household. System providers are not allowed to charge the basic stations retail rate for a household’s extension.” The rules and regulations of Article 6 state, “When a system provider determines the cable television retail rate of a household, which the system provider can charge different rates, the system provider must factor in the local area’s characteristics; population, income, and other factors for the community the household lives in; price negotiating; and other market factors. But, system providers must not exceed the minimum and maximum retail rates determined by municipality government, city government, or county government.” On the basis of copyright law, system providers and television station companies both are authorized to only be able to charge household customers. Therefore, currently cable television retail rates are calculated by household, so providers are only allowed to charge households.
On January 7, 2009, the National Communications Commission (NCC) in their 278thCommittee Resolution determined that the term “household” refers to all the people living in the residence of a single address plate. If a family household includes connected rooms or houses that may be to the left, right, above, below, in front of, or behind one another, this household meets the requirements of being considered a television household customer. As long as the household pays the cable television installation charge for every television set, this household only needs to pay the monthly retail rate of a single household.
Because in reality there are many different types of households, which results in some situations or cases causing disputes over how to charge retail rates (such as spaces that rent out studio apartments or student dormitories), the NCC determined that currently it will continue to use the original definition of a family household for retail rate standards. The NCC will allow companies and customers to negotiate prices for special cases, such as (studio) apartment rentals.
On October 16, 2008, the NCC held a conference, which invited the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee to discuss the issue of shared rental spaces with studio apartments. If the renter of the (studio) apartment(s) is a company, then the company is not considered a customer under Consumer Protection Law. Therefore, the customer will be determined to be the tenant and not the landlord. The representative of the Chinese Taipei Consumers’ Foundation agreed that the standard norm for cable television retail rates is a single household, and that the basic definition of a family household is all the members of a family.