TITV debuted its first internal step to digitalization from its Taitung news bureau in 2008. Now it’s taking a full step.
By O’LOH KUMU
| At the front door of Taitung News Bureau, the banner says "Starting off from the tribe." |
In March 2010, we set the theme “Facing the Challenges in the Digital Age” for the second World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference (WITBC’10). It was at that time when Taiwan Indigenous TV (TITV) took another step toward digitalization. The first step, however, began in 2008.
TITV debuted its first internal step to digitalization in 2008 from its Taitung news bureau. One of the main reasons for choosing the area was because one-third of the population in Taitung are Indigenous people, representing six of the 14 tribes officially recognized by the government.
From 2006 to 2008, the news center in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, was the main provider of TITV’s daily news and news magazine program and had around five local correspondents. Major domestic stories, were assigned to teams from northern Taiwan because resources, including the staff, equipments, and production facilities, were all based in Taipei.
In an attempt to extend TITV News’ reach, the station began to establish news bureau in eastern Taiwan. The station hoped the bureau would not only alleviate the imbalance in news programming between northern and southern Taiwan—and deliver an “Indigenous” perspective—but also help realize the idea of having community-oriented programs. TITV’s consultative committee unanimously approved the plan.
The news bureau in Eastern Taiwan, marks TITV’s first stride towards digitalization. We placed emphasis on digital production and created all-digital control rooms with equipments for non-linear editing, independent digital archive, and optical fiber transmission. In terms of software, TITV and the National Museum of Prehistory signed a memorendum of understanding to ensure sharing of the digital content from both sides.
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The station, however, did not embark on a journey to full digitalization until last year.
In October 2010, the government of Taiwan announced plans to end analogue broadcasting by the end of 2012 and achieve full digitalization by 2013. Well, things are speeding up. Earlier this year, the government announced its goal of completing the process by mid 2012.
Now, after three years of discussions, considerations, and policy debates, TITV is going full steam ahead with digitalization.
The first step was joining Taiwan Public Broadcasting Station’s (TBS) digital development project in 2010. The scheme includes establishing digital archive, newsroom automation, and non-linear and tapeless program post-production systems, which aim to build a digital platform for resource sharing. The projects hopes by adopting newsroom automation, members of TBS will be able to improve operation efficiency, lower operation costs, and further differentiate themselves at the same time.
Prior to becoming a part of TBS, TITV’s audio and video news materials were only used for the daily news program. The idea of a “united news desk” is to facilitate resource sharing through the digitalization of news materials. Members of the news desk can share the same news materials to lower production costs.
In January, TITV and Hakka TV were the first to adopt newsroom automation system. At the same time, TITV is still negotiating for a digital TV channel, which is projected to launch within six months; by then, TITV will enter into a new era of digitalization.
Underneath the promising surface, however, TITV still faces many challenges. The lack of regulations regarding who will operate the station is one because it subjects TITV to an annual open bidding for its operation. This prevents the station from setting mid-and long-term strategies and goals.
Despite the challenges, TITV’s digitalization has been relatively smooth. We can now be proud and say that we have at least accomplished this interim objective. Our ultimate goal is to have an independent newsroom with its operation free of any form of interventions.
As TITV works toward completely digitalization, there are still bumps to overcome—whether it’s internal technology and training, or external policies and resources—there are still challenges ahead. Under the current of this digitalization trend, however, we believe that the initial steps of digitalization will bring us closer to the rest of the world. Propelled by digitalization, the vision of a rapid and timely news-sharing platform with international Indigenous media will be more than just a concept.
ENDS
O’loh Kumu (Amis) is News Manager of TITV. O’loh has extensive experience in Indigenous news and programs since 1990. Prior to joining Public Television Service as a reporter in 1996, he was an associate producer and cameraman on several documentary films. In 1997, his special series on Indigenous hunting culture won the International Wildlife Film Festival Award. When PTS was officially established in 1998, O’loh was recruited as camera reporter for the country’s first Indigenous news magazine program, Indigenous News Magazine, and later became the program’s producer.
In 2007, O’loh joined Taiwan Indigenous TV as interim news manager when the station joined the operation of Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS). He was later appointed the station’s news manager.
