Taiwan is a small island; however, there are as many as eight 24-hour TV news channels, including TVBS-N, SET News, CTi News, FTV News, Era News, EBC Financial News, ETTV News and USTV News. The 24-hour TV news channels provide a way for Taiwanese people to know what is happening worldwide.



　In fact, 24-hour TV news channels were rare in Taiwan before 1994. At that time, there were only three wireless TV channels: Taiwan Television, China Television, and the Chinese Television System. In addition, the morning and noon news broadcasts only took half an hour. The broadcast for the evening news report was longer than previous ones, but it was only an hour. It was not until 1994 when the Cable Radio and Television Act was enforced that the number of TV channels in Taiwan grew. In 1995, the first 24-hour cable TV news channel, TVBS-N, was born.

     As the number of TV news channels increased, news editors transformed the original content of news shows from informative “hard” news to a lighter style of “soft” news stories. The purpose for them to do this was to attract a bigger audience. Nowadays, many new “news shows” are being shown on TV, and these shows are made to be more fun to watch.

　Apart from the creative way anchors report the news to audiences, the opening music of each news program and channel is different as well. Some TV news channels compose their own music; therefore, people will instantly know which channel they are tuned into. Take TVBS News for example, the news company made the music itself and the tone of song is easily for people to remember.