Chinas State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced that it would consolidate radio and television networks under a single national cable television network company, Peoples Daily Online reports.
It said the new company would come up by the end of the year and would further expand into new businesses like mobile TV and online videos.
Tao Shiming, Director of the SARFT Society Administration Bureau said: “The nation’s radio and television networks need to be consolidated under one roof as currently they are individually run and have not developed into large-scale entities.”
Presently there are 1,000 radio and television networks in China. The absence of a nationwide and unified network comes in the way of their plan to compete with others for the opportunities that arise from the convergence of technologies, said industry experts.
Mr Tao said the consolidation exercise was likely to start at the provincial level by the end of this year and culminate in nationwide consolidation later.
Zeng HuiMing, Deputy Secretary-General of the cable TV committee of the China Radio and Television Association, said: “All networks in the nation are likely to be integrated in three years.”
China last month launched a pilot project in 12 cities to test the convergence of the three networks. The trials are expected to last until 2012 and will focus on connecting the broadcasting and telecom networks. (Source: ABU)