Digital TV standard announced
By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-08-31 08:55
The Chinese Government finally released the nation's digital TV terrestrial
transmission standard yesterday, but it will take some time before digital
terrestrial broadcasting becomes a significant business in the world's largest
TV market.
The Standardization Administration of China said yesterday on
its website that the proposal for the transmission standard was approved on
August 18 as the compulsory national standard, and will be effective from August
1 next year.
Along with 3G mobile communications, the digitalization of
China's broadcasting is regarded as a lucrative market, which could be worth
over 1 trillion yuan (US$125 billion). Therefore, it will become a key area in
which China wants to have its own standard in order to cut royalty payments and
assume an advantageous position in the global industry.
Digital TV
broadcasting takes place in three ways cable, satellite and terrestrial,
with China mainly following international standards in the first two
areas.
Cable broadcasting is the only major transmission format currently
in use in China, as the terrestrial standard was not decided until August 18 and
satellites for direct broadcasting have yet to be launched.
At the end of
last year, only four million households across the nation had access to digital
cable TV broadcasting, with the number expected to reach 10 million this
year.
But the country has more than 400 million households with TV sets
and only 128 million had access to cable TV at the end of last year, meaning
that the majority of digital TV transmission is expected to rely on the
terrestrial method.
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