Chinese cable TV to go fully digital by 2015

BEIJING: China is planning to provide access to digital cable TV programmes to all its citizens by 2015, an official said on Saturday.

China is working to switch from analogue cable television to digital cable television after a three-year pilot programme proves successful in 49 urban areas, deputy director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, Zhang Haitao, said.

He made the remarks at the on-going second China International Cultural Industry Fair held in the southern Guangdong province, Xinhua reported.

By now, the upgrading of digital broadcasting in cities like Qingdao, Hangzhou, Shenzhen has been completed, while the work in provinces and municipalities including Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong and Sichuan is still going on. By the end of last year, China had 2,548 radio and TV stations.

According to government statistics, there are 126 million cable TV users in the country. China has a total of 900 million TV viewers with most of them living in the countryside, which will not be provided with digital cable TV programmes in the near future.