China's Switch to DTV Falling Far Behind Schedule
July 01, 2005
According to projections by SARFT (State Administration of Radio Film and Television), at the end of 2005 a third of the 100 million Chinese cable television users should have switched to digital television, but the number which has switched so far - two million - is still very far from the goal set in the tenth five-year plan. Originally, standards for digital television's cable and terrestrial broadcasting were to be set at the end of 2003, but this still has not been done, contributing to the slow switch to digital television. The strict separation of broadcasting and telecommunications network industries has created an additional obstacle. SARFT has set 2015 as the year when the switch to digital television should be complete, but this date might need to be postponed.