State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) Vice-Minister, Tian Jin, said that China aims to digitalise all of its cable television networks by 2015.
“For cable TV operators, digitalisation is the key to move towards the three-network convergence,” Mr Tian said on Monday at an industry conference, China Daily reported.
The country’s cable TV subscribers reached 187 million by the end of last year, of which there were 88 million digital TV users.
A digitalised cable TV network enables a much larger amount of content transmission and, together with other technologies, will make it possible for TV broadcasters, telecom carriers, and Internet companies to enter each other’s fields and provide services.
China launched a pilot project in 12 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, for trials of the convergence last July.
Mr Tian said the SARFT has drawn up a preliminary plan for setting up a nationwide cable television network company, which will be responsible for consolidating all the nation’s separate cable television networks into one.
There are many cable television networks in China, all run by different operators at various administrative levels. The lack of a nationwide unified network has become an obstacle to the three-network convergence. (Source: ABU website)