China is expected to sign up 30 million cable digital television
subscribers by 2005, according to a five-year plan drawn up by the
State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
Though the plan says that many cities in China will broadcast
digital television in two years' time, it still needs to do more to
sell the technology to consumers to fulfill its target, reports
Monday's China Daily.
Under the plan, the nation is divided into three parts, in addition
to the four municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and
Chongqing.
The eastern zone includes Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and
Shandong, while the western zone includes Xinjiang, Tibet, Ningxia
and Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, and Guizhou. And the
central zone is composed of the remaining provinces and regions on
the Chinese mainland.
Before the year of 2005, all cities in the eastern zone, capital
cities and a few smaller cities in the central zone and some
capital cities in the western zone will start cable digital
broadcasting.
Some 40 Chinese cities and regions have already carried out digital
television broadcasts on a trial basis and more small- and medium-
sized cities have announced plans to start digital television
broadcasting in one or two years.
But Many cable TV subscribers still regard watching digital TV as a
"luxury" since it means adding a decoding device, which costs at
least 1,000 yuan (120.5 US dollars), so that their TV sets
recognize the digital signal.
The extra cost has turned the cable TV network into a bottleneck
for the digital television development, the paper quotes Wang
Xiaojie, an official with the SARFT.
The current cable network is able to transmit 40 to 50 channels at
most, leaving no room for further development while digital
television is better solution since it allows for 400 to 500
channels, said Wang.
(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2003)