An 18-hour Tibetan-language satellite TV channel is expected to be launched on Oct. 28 in southwest China's Sichuan Province, a local official said Thursday.

The channel is the third Tibetan-language satellite TV channel in the country after two similar channels in Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province, where most of 5 million Tibetan minorities live, said He Daxin, head of the Sichuan Provincial Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

The channel, broadcast 18 hours a day, will use the Sichuan Provincial TV Station logo and broadcast with the Kamba language, one of the three major Tibetan dialects. The Qinghai Tibetan-language channel uses the Amdo dialect and the channel in Tibet uses the Weizang dialect, he said.

The new channel will cover 2.4 million Kamba-speaking population in Sichuan, Tibet, Qinghai, Yunnan and Gansu through satellite, cable TV and wireless transmitters, he said.

The channel broadcast programs of news, art, weather and dubbed TV soap operas, he said.

Wanggyai Lhamo, 25, who just got her master degree from the Minzu University of China based in Beijing, was one of the four anchors of the channel.

"It has long been my dream to be a host using my own language," said she, host of two art programs.