TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Sports Administration (體育署) responded to Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨) legislator Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之)'s proposal on government-funded Olympics broadcasts on Wednesday (Aug. 14), stating it is open to listening to opinions from all sectors for discussion.
KMT legislator Yeh urged the government to fund the purchase of broadcasting rights for the Olympics and other major sports events and proposed forming a national broadcasting team with various platforms to ensure the general public can watch the Olympics for free.
The Sports Administration emphasized that the current government approach balances public viewing rights and industry development. Given limited resources, the government provides appropriate subsidies to legally registered companies, corporations, and groups that acquire or own broadcasting rights for major international sports events.
ELTA TV (愛爾達) won the exclusive broadcasting rights bid for this year's Olympics. The Sports Administration previously announced that it subsidized 16% of the rights fee. The agency clarified that ELTA first secured the broadcasting rights before applying for the subsidy, not the other way around. It also mandated ELTA to collaborate with Public Television Service (公共電視) and Chinese Television System (華視) to broadcast the games and provide footage for domestic news channels.
