Media Platform Competition - Adoption, Usage, and Global Impact of Broadband Technologies - page 269

on IPTV than those who still subscribed to cable
TV. In addition, they became more satisfied with
the information function that IPTV provides. There
was no significant difference between the IPTV
users who terminated their cable TV subscription
and those who still subscribed to cable TV in terms
of the demographic variables.
About 13% of IPTV users had at least two
digital TV platforms. They had more TV sets
than the single IPTV platform users. However,
there was no significant difference between the
two kinds of users in terms of demographics and
average viewing time for IPTV and TV as a whole.
This study also tried to explore the factors
contributing to IPTV's time displacement effect.
The findings show that there is no correlation
between the functional consideration and the time
displacement effect, although the users' satisfac-
tion factor was an exception. IPTV users who
were more satisfied with the entertainment and
information functions that IPTV provides tended
to spend more time on IPTV.
More than 80% of IPTV users were CHT's
broadband customers before they subscribed to
CHT's IPTV. They also replied that CHT's special
deal for triple play (phone, DSL, and IPTV service)
was one of the main reasons why they subscribed
to IPTV. More than half of the IPTV subscribers
used VOD service frequently, since they liked
to watch TV at their convenience. Although
technically speaking cable TV can also provide
VOD service, the cable operators in Taiwan have
not provided VOD service to their subscribers,
which makes CHT's IPTV more advantageous
than cable TV.
Currently, CHT's IPTV cannot manage chan-
nels or produce programs because of Taiwanese
laws and regulations that do not allow the gov-
ernment to own any media. However, since the
government still owns 35% of CHT, CHT can only
play the role of an “open platform,” which means
that all the content providers, content aggregators,
ISPs, and other fixed networks can use CHT's
IPTV platform by paying reasonable prices. The

regulator only allows CHT's IPTV to play an ac-
tive role in VOD and interactive services (www.
ncc.gov.tw). The survey showed that when IPTV
users subscribed to the service, they considered
more of its entertainment function. This finding
also indicated that the characteristics of CHT's
IPTV such as VOD and interactive services were
not considered to be very important at the time of
subscribing. This shows that CHT has more room
to improve in its VOD and interactive services.
According to related studies, if a new medium
has a displacement effect on existing media, it
is because the new medium can provide a simi-
lar function to the existing media that satisfies
more of the users' needs. It can also explain why
Kaplan's study (1978) found that, after cable
TV appeared, the audience would decrease the
time spent on terrestrial TV. However, this study
found that there was no time displacement effect
of Chunghwa's IPTV on the cable TV platform.
In other words, the functional niche of the new
medium does not appear immediately, and takes
time to develop (Kayany & Yelsma, 2000). It is
worthwhile continuing to study the time displace-
ment effect and functional displacement when the
penetration rate of IPTV is increasing.
This study also echoes that of Liu & Hsu (2007)
in that time displacement among the TV platforms
is not an absolute displacement. A different TV
platform has its advantages and disadvantages,
and viewers also wish to have more choices with
regard to TV platforms. The conclusion drawn
from this study can contribute to the literature on
the displacement effect. However, its limitation is
that when this study was conducted, the penetra-
tion of IPTV was very low (about 17%). Some
questions could not generate enough replies from
respondents. Therefore, the authors were very
cautious in interpreting the findings and drawing
conclusions.
Cable TV has a penetration of over 80% in
Taiwan, higher than that of broadband network.
It will thus be hard for telephone companies to
capture the video market, and hence the risk for