Taiwan's economy was rocked by the September 21, 1999 earthquake and the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. dragged down economies around the world. Although Taiwan's economy grew by 5.86% in 2000, it shrank by 2.18% in 2001. 

  The economy continued to be sluggish for the next two years, and grew by only 3.59% in 2002 and 3.31% in 2003. In 2004, Taiwan's economy noticeably rebound-ed, and grew at a rate of 5.71%.
 
  The SARS outbreak in May of 2003 led to a rapid contraction in advertising budgets for May and June of that year, but the total advertising revenue for the five traditional forms of media topped NT$59.4 billion, up 9.18% from 2002. Total reve-nue for 2004 was up yet again, to NT$61 billion. 

  In 2001, terrestrial TV ac-counted for 42% of all tel-evision ad revenue. By 2004, however, it had shrunk to 25% due to the falling ratings of the largest three networks, as well as the higher cost and lack of flexibility of TV advertise-ments. Cable television ratings went up during the same period, carrying advertising revenues up along with it. As channel families began to join together and stabilize their operations, they were able to consolidate their marketing resources and create custom-ized advertising proposals for clients in different industries. 

  The market for newspaper advertising was expanded with the launch of the Apple Daily in May of 2003. News-paper advertising revenue in 2004 was NT$16.5 billion, up 9.3% from 2003 but still lower than 2001 levels. 

  Newspaper readership has been steadily dropping and the market has become increasingly competitive. The website of 104.com has taken a chunk out of newspaper clas-sified advertising revenues, and newspaper advertising for real estate and automobiles is lower than in previous years. 

  New categories of maga-zines have hit the market and helped to expand magazine advertising revenue. As the markets and readerships for different magazines become better defined, the consumption power of different categories of readers has been proven and has led to an increased reliance on magazine advertising by many clients. For these reasons, magazine advertising has seen steady growth, and in 2004 reached NT$8 billion, up 6.5% from 2003. 

  In the field of broadcast media, stations have divided themselves into popular music, classic music, classical music, and news categories, and each station has worked to define its own appeal. 

  Broadcast media outlets have begun developing specially tailored marketing packages and are using product placement in order to increase the coverage level and effici-ency of their client's advertising investment. They have also developed strategic partner-ships that allow them to reach listeners in public places, which has further boosted their ratings. These efforts have increased client confidence in the effectiveness of broadcast media advertising. 

GIO Changes Make Media Nervous 

  Apart from the economy, policies enacted by the Government Information Of-fice(GIO) have been the biggest factor affecting the media. 

  At the beginning of 2005, the GIO rearranged the order of television stations in order to group stations together by category. The channel for Unique Satellite TV was moved to a much more favor-able position, leading to a large increase in advertising reve-nues for the company. 

  Beginning in May of 2004, the five largest terrestrial TV stations began operating digital TV stations. Although they hoped that their broadcast of the Olympics last August would lead to a rapid boost in ratings and advertising, the actual result was much more modest. The government has announced that it will take control of all analogue channels by 2010, which is sure to have an influence on television advertising. 

  Digital broadcast licenses are due to be issued later this year, but broadcast media operators say that digital broadcasting shouldn't have a significant influence on their industry for the next five years. The GIO's proposal to re-arrange wireless broadcast channels, on the other hand, has many people in the industry worried. The government has proposed rearranging all stations after FM 104. Besides, there may be some new news stations, and stations with low-power signals may be able to apply for midpower signals, while stations with midpower signals may apply to open a second station. 

  Magazines and news-papers have been faced with new GIO regulations that restrict "X" content. Many groups have criticized the new regulations as unclear, and the government has delayed their implementation until June. 

  Even Internet ads will be subject to new regulations. Taiwan's Internet Association has proposed a new Junk Mail Law that is currently in the Executive Yuan. In the future, advertisers sending out mass mailings must provide a method for the receiver to decline accepting the ad, or else be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
 
In the Future, Who Will Believe the Media? 

  In order to compete for larger shares of advertising budgets, media outlets are creating individualized adver-tising packages that combine different media and use product placement. This trend is only expected to grow. 

  Many TV programs have agreements with adver-tisers to include their logo in the program or to have the characters mention the name of the advertiser's product. In the popular series "I Only Care About You," it's not a coin-cidence that the lead female character works at Taishin Bank. 

  For a million NT, a financial magazine will run a special issue for advertisers that looks like the magazine's regular content. Even the TV news is full of reports that are paid for by advertisers. If you're curious, just watch the last 20 minutes of the 7:00 evening news. 

  Once news of these kinds of arrangements gets out, will anyone still believe the media? 

Consumers Will Spend 80% of Their Time on Digital Platforms 

  Not too long ago a flash film about the media's future expansion was being passed around on the Internet. The film predicted that by 2008, Google and Amazon would combine to form Googlezon. Based on consu-mer spending habits and interests, the website would provide customized news and would become an authoritative information provider, in turn attracting a massive advertising volume. By 2010 MSN news would be powerless, and by 2014 the world's news media would have a new hierarchy, and the New York Times would vanish from existence. 

  Although these predictions may not come true, and even though most people don't think that newspapers will be replaced by the internet, internet technology is sure to alter the rules of the media game. 

  In 2003, Cite launched e-magazines, and although the circulation was smaller than traditional printed magazines, it created a new market that included overseas readers and readers who were accustomed to reading online. This market has vast potential. 

《資料來源:動腦雜誌349期/2005年5月》