The development of digital TV (DTV) is a central task for
China's radio, TV and film industry and private investment is
welcome to take part in this process, a senior industry official
said yesterday.
"Digitalization must bring a change in our mindset and we should
abandon the concepts of the planned economy era. We should seek a
win-win model both inside and outside the industry," said Zhang
Haitao, vice minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film
and TV (SARFT).
He made the remark in a keynote address at the opening ceremony
of the China Cable Broadcasting Network (CCBN) exhibition in
Beijing, the industry's largest gathering, which opens today and
runs until Wednesday.
While many industries in China have witnessed rapid change as a
result of the ongoing process of reform and opening, the radio,
film and TV industry has lagged behind them in reforms and is
ill-prepared in terms of its mindset, technology and organizational
ability.
The industry's resources are highly scattered with every
province or city owning their own broadcasting and transmission
networks.
However, digitalization is now an urgent requirement, so the
industry must adopt a market-oriented attitude in the promotion of
DTV and cooperate inside the industry and work with partners in
other industries.
Zhang, maybe China's most enthusiastic proponent of DTV, said
SARFT is working on a series of policies to achieve
digitalization.
The administration will adjust its policies to encourage the
consolidation of networks and foster several mega-enterprises.
The vice minister added companies like China Cable Network Co
Ltd can play a key role in industrial consolidations.
In January, the China Cable Network, which owns a
70,000-kilometre-long fiber backbone broadcasting network, was
founded and it was believed to be a major vehicle in consolidating
the nation's broadcasting network resources.
In accordance with the central government's guidelines on
furthering the development of the private sector, Zhang said SARFT
is also drawing up regulations to allow private investments to
enter areas such as the distribution network.
He added private companies may also get a green light to invest
in services like program-on-demand and information services, areas
currently only open to investment from the radio, film and TV
industry.
At the same time, the development of DTV will enter a new stage
with the focus shifting to a large-scale deployment at provincial
level following the experiences of city-level networks, according
to Zhang.
Guangdong, Fujian, Shanxi, Hunan, Shaanxi and Jiangxi provinces,
the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Beijing and Shanghai
municipalities will all start to switch TV transmissions from
analogue to digital platforms this year, through which all cable TV
subscribers will be able to watch DTV programs.
The overall transmission model offers free set-top boxes to
subscribers and more TV, radio and information content to them to
attract them to watch digital programs.
Beijing, which saw little progress in deploying DTV in the past
years, will stop analogue TV transmissions by the end of 2007, as
the city needs broadcast digital signals during the 2008 Olympic
Games.
The capital aims to transfer 500,000 families to DTV this
year.
As to the long-awaited standard for the terrestrial transmission
of DTV, Zhang said the Chinese standard working group is working
hard on that and SARFT will draw up plans and regulations on this
issue.
China once intended to use the European DVB standard for the
Chinese market, but it later decided to formulate its own
standard.
An industry source, close to the standard working group, said
the Chinese DMB-T standard is certain to come out this year.
It will be an optimized version of the three proposals by
Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the Academy
of Broadcasting Sciences under SARFT.
However, Zhang said that even if the standard is completed, it
may take five years to build a mature and complete industrial chain
based on it.
(China Daily March 21, 2005)