China gears up for digital broadcasts
By Sunray Liu
BEIJING - China's nascent broadcast industry is looking for ways to
boost its domestic TV, radio and cable equipment sectors as planners
decide whether to adopt a U.S. or European digital-broadcast standard.
Speaking at a recent industry exhibition here, a senior government official
laid out plans for converting China's broadcast infrastructure to digital
technology. Zhang Haitao told an audience at the Beijing International
Radio, TV and Film Exhibition (BIRTV) that interim technologies such as
set-top boxes will be critical to China's transition from analog broadcasting.
"We are working hard to trace global technology progress in the TV and
radio industry, such as DBS, digital video and audio equipment, HDTV,
[set-top boxes] and other new-generation terminals," said Zhang, who is
vice director general of China's State Administration of Radio, Film and TV.
"In the meantime, we shall focus on pushing new technology transfer to
industrial products, we shall cooperate with some important foreign
companies and we shall form [industries] with our intellectual-property rights
eventually."
The sheer size of the Chinese TV and radio markets has caught the attention
of European, Japanese and U.S. manufacturers as well as standards groups.
There are an estimated 300 million analog television sets in China, along
with 500 million radios. The emerging digital market is expected to be
equally large.
Proponents of the U.S. Advanced Television Systems Committee's
standard and of the European Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) spec
attended the BIRTV expo to promote their broadcast models. Though
China is also considering a Japanese digital TV spec, most observers here
believe it's a race between the U.S. and European approaches.
The ATSC standard was demonstrated last year from the Great Wall. DVB
forces staged a terrestrial-broadcast trial earlier this year, transmitting signals
from the China Central Television tower near the exhibition site where it was
received and replayed.
Precisely when Chinese officials will select a digital TV standard is hard to
predict, especially in light of a government shakeup that involved officials
who were charged with administering radio, TV and film industry issues.
The Chinese government is planning to begin direct broadcast satellite
(DBS) services next year as a way to expand radio and TV coverage
beyond the current 80 percent of the country. Hence, Ku-band antennas
and receivers are expected to be in greater demand as home appliances
after Beijing relaxes limits on DBS services. Many local stations have
already expanded to nationwide coverage using digital-compression
technology for satellite broadcasts.
Planners are also looking to improve video and audio quality in advanced
receivers. For example, more Chinese TV stations are planning to
broadcast in stereo and are already using the Nicam multilanguage audio
standard. They also plan to develop digital-audio technology in TV
receivers.
China will be the fourth nation to sponsor HDTV trials beginning this month.
In June, neighboring Taiwan adopted the U.S. ATSC standard for digital
terrestrial broadcasts.
Plans are also in the works to upgrade China's cable TV network, which
boasts 70 million subscribers and assets totaling more than $25 billion. The
Chinese government is expected to set up a private company to serve
cable-network subscribers. Among the technologies being considered to
upgrade the cable network is Internet Protocol-based data communications.
Cable trials in two Chinese cities, Shenzhen and Qingdao, have
demonstrated the feasibility of providing high-speed, broadband interactive
services over cable. Both trials offered enhanced services such as TV
program guides, Internet access, online stock quotes and shopping. So far,
technologies like multichannel multipoint distribution services and optical
fiber have been used to upgrade Chinese cable-TV networks.
On the equipment side, the Chinese government is expected to invest more
than $300 million in Dalian, a city in northeast China that is becoming a key
center for its electronics industry, to buy technology for producing VCRs
though a joint venture with Panasonic.
On the downside, however, the Chinese interest in digital television
represents at least the fourth big electronics application that was forecast to
sweep the country's consumers and provide huge sales to mostly Western
systems vendors - all with mixed results.
The cellular infrastructure buildout that was the talk of the industry five years
ago has not caught fire. Meanwhile, digital video-disk proponents still insist
that the Chinese will be buying 20 million units a year in 18 months, when
only 700,000 systems were sold worldwide last year. Personal computers
are now said to be the next big thing: from a base of 2,000 systems in 1991,
the Chinese market is expected to absorb 2.6 million units this year.
But the Chinese economy may not cooperate. Estimates for economic
growth, forecast at a hot 8 percent earlier this year, have been ratcheted
down to 7 percent, and some economists believe 3 percent is more realistic.
The government has railed at the devaluation of the yen and hinted that
China's renminbi, which hasn't moved an inch in the Asian currency crisis,
may fall soon. At some banks, 70 percent of loans are non-performing.
Topping it off, Yangtze River flooding this summer has ravaged oil fields and
is expected to cost the country $24 billion.
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