Chinese subscribers of direct satellite television will exceed 15 million by
2010, according to a report published on Wednesday.
By the first half of
this year, Chinese subscribers of cable TV had reached 140 million. Two thirds
of households still receive wireless TV signals and some regions receive no
signals, says the 2006-2007 Report on China's Satellite Television Industry.
It notes that direct satellite television has an advantage in signal
coverage and can be applied in commercial operation.
The government and
broadcasting industry are discussing policies.
The report was jointly
compiled by a publication owned by the State Administration of Radio, Film and
Television and a research and consulting institute specializing in digital TV
called GL Research.
China launched a new-generation high-power
communications and broadcast satellite called SinoSat-2 on October 29, but it
failed to work because of problems with its solar power panels.
It was
developed by the Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology and was designed
to serve broadcast, digital and satellite TV and digital broadband multimedia
systems on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It was supposed to
operate for 15 years.
A substitute satellite, SinoSat-3, would take at
least three years to develop, said an SinoSat expert on
Tuesday.
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