wave condition is no longer an issue. Obtaining
text and voice information from the web is the
largest competitor of traditional voice broadcast.
Music on MP3 has already been incorporated
into handsets, PDAs, Palm, lap-top computer
and other new devices. New devices capable of
playing digital media are evolving rapidly. If
broadcasters are still fixated on radio, they will
bemaking a historicmistake. Radio broadcasters
must face the challenges fromdigital media.
In the same time, because of the rapid
development in telecom, original electro-
magnetic broadcasting environment is becoming
more andmore “polluted”. Traditional medium
wave radio reception quality has already been
degradedwhen comparedwith before. Meeting
the market needs without change to the existing
broadcasting tools is already becoming
impossible. AM started in 1920, while FM
launched in 1940. In today’s rapid technology
development, newer technology replaces old one
is unavoidable. Onone hand, original technology
environment is worsening. On the other hand,
newmedia development is moving faster. Thus,
radio broadcasting has to use a new tool: digital.
Digitisation of audio broadcasting must take
advantage of existing resources. Because DAB
is already lagging behindDTV in development,
digital radio needs to use existing resources of
DTV and follow similar development path. For
example, present DTV has three transmission
methods: satellite, cable and terrestrial. These
three transmission methods can all be adopted
for digital audio broadcasting. Japan’s terrestrial
DTV standard included the design for reception
of digital radio over digital TV channels. In
terms of our country’s DTV resources, with
the exception of direct broadcasting satellites,
development of digitalization of satellite signals
is mostly completed. Adding digital audio is
also very easy by applying MPEG encoding
on MUX. As a consequence, digital radio can
easily reach all locations through satellite digital
TVs transmission channels. Presently, there are
100 million cable TV household subscribers
with 400 million viewers. In theory, if radio
broadcasting can reach all TV viewers, the
number of listeners would be the same.
Because satellite digital TV signals cannot be
received directly yet, cable TV distribution is
necessary. There are two ways: one is through
recovery of analogue signals at the cable head-
end using frequency modulation (same as
wireless) to the cable distribution network
using radio set for reception; another way is
through direct input intoDTV streamand using
TV set for reception. Very often, EPG has
special code for each radio program. Reception
of digital audio requires no additional resources
due to the decoder functions within a set-top
box. This is a fast and economical way.
Digital audio broadcasting should adopt
coordinated development through multiple
means. Our DAB trial started in 1994 and two
networks were set up in Guangdong and
Beijing-Tianjing. At the time, it’s the first in
Asia. The international standard organization
for digital AM, “DRM” was founded in
Guangzhou White Swan hotel in China in
March 1998. This standard was adopted by
ITU as an international SW standard. We will
start digitalAM trial in later this year. Last year,
CNR also ran satellite broadcasting trials. Over
the past several years of preparation and
experiments, the time has come to accelerate
digital audio broadcasting in China.
Under the leadership of Committee of Science
andTechnologyandSARFT,we conductedSino-
European DAB/DBVB joint projects. The trial
networks in Guangdong already expanded to
includemultimedia services. The bit rate ofDAB
isaround1.5MbpsandmultipleCDqualitydigital
audioprogrammes are broadcasted. The previous
annoyingly high price of a digital audio receiver
already dropped to an acceptable range for wider
introduction of DAB services. Taiwan region
already started wide deployment of DAB.
Comparing DAB with FM, from investment
point of view, for same geographic coveragewith
same number of radio stations, investment
requirement on transmitters is much smaller for
the former than the later. The power required is
also much smaller for DAB than for analogue
broadcasting. In addition, it has added advantages
of lower maintenance and operating cost. For
example, Bavaria in Germany used to have 5
analogue radio stations. After the adoption of
DAB, all stationswere combined intoone. Power
consumption dropped to 1/170th of the original,
from 1661.55kW to 9.7kW.
Another benefit of DAB is the convenience
of launching digital multimedia service.
Right now, interfaces for PDA, palm-top
and laptop already exist, which makes the
offering image, text and voice services
possible. Guangdong for example, already
started with experimenting with delivering
multimedia services including video and
received good feedback.
Taking advantage of TV Network
Development Year 2003
2003 is China’s Network Development Year.
We would like to push advanced network
services aggressively in order to lead the
network development and integration. For
cable network, programmonthly fees are still
the major revenue source. Data services are
also growing relatively quickly. For trunk
networks, Virtual Private Networks,
transmission capacity rental and Internet service
are major revenue sources. For trunk network,
regular TVprogramdelivery over long distance
is not economical. According to an American
research firm, profitability ratio comparing
delivery of programmes via trunk network,
Internet and telecom services is 1:10:160. Thus,
trunk network must seek data service revenue
other than television programme transmission.
Content is the king of DTV development,
although programmes alone are not sufficient
to accelerate theDTVdevelopment. The current
flat rate subscription is not sufficient to meet
the needs of the market. Revenue source needs
to shift fromgeneral advertising alone to amulti-
tiered servicemodel that includesmore custom-
tailored advertising, more choices in paid
programmes such as: Pay TV, Video on
Demand, Pay-Per-View, and data services etc.
Establishing more tiered programming service
platform requires large amount of human
resources, equipment and financing. We need
to take advantage of our existing program
making capability. In addition to CCTV’s need
to increase the number of paid channels,
provinces with stronger economy strength
should also join the construction of paid
channels.We should also allow filmproduction
companies to build movie channels to take
advantage of existing movie production.
Seizing the opportunity of Radio
Broadcasting Development Year, 2003
In telecom, 3G-wireless is getting hotter in
China. The industry is moving towards
delivering of audio and video to handsets.
Radio on a handset is already a reality. Video
delivery to next generation handset is possible.
The delivery of multimedia to 3G handsets is
an open challenge to professionals in
broadcasting industry. SMS service on handsets
is actually a broadcasting service. Handsets also
open up the competition for the news
broadcasting market, which has traditionally
belonged to broadcasting industry alone. If we
lack tools in offering new digital broadcasting
services, traditional broadcasting listeners will
gradually be taken away by other media.
On the other hand, although Internet
development received major setback recently,
the trend in information delivery through
digitization and networking has not changed
because of it. Traditional analogue voicemarket
is widely challenged by digital media and web
media. Almost all the radio stations started
webcasting. To this extent, broadcasting barrier
due to the limitation of electrical and magnetic
I’m already digital
the
channel
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