Viewers angry after cable providerTBC shuts down FTV News channel

Four days since cable TV provider TBC''s abrupt suspension of FTV''s news channel, TBC viewers across Taiwan are still without access to FTV''s service. Consumer protection offices in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, and Taichung have been inundated with demands for refunds. Officials say that viewers who choose to cancel TBC subscriptions cannot be charged any penalty. Unable to watch their favorite FTV News, some members of the public are reaching boiling point.Hsinchu residentNews is everybody’s right. Over the last few days, phones have been ringing off the hook at consumer protection offices in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Taichung, with unhappy viewers who want a refund from TBC.Luo Chun-shengHsinchu consumer protection officialOriginally they were able to view, let’s say, 100 channels; now there’s one fewer. Now it might be that it won’t be a complete refund, but perhaps a certain discount from the monthly subscription, or something like that. Authorities have told TBC that having cut a channel without warning, the service they’re now providing is no longer the same as what had been promised in viewers’ contracts. As such, TBC has forfeited the right to charge penalty fees to viewers who cancel their subscriptions.Kang Hsin-jenTaichung consumer protection officialIf the provider doesn’t let the viewer watch the content that is most important to them, then the viewer can demand an end to the contract, and they cannot be charged a penalty.The furor over the overnight scrapping of TBC’s FTV News service is still far from simmering down.