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China expected to launch TV mobile standard soon
China’s broadcast industry regulator has announced that it will require mobile phone service providers in China to use a China-developed technology standard for broadcasting television signals to mobile phones. SARFT announced the new standard StiMi (Satellite Terrestrial Interactive Multi-service Infrastructure) ahead of an International forum on digital mobile standards taking place Oct/Nov 2006. The standard developed by SARFT is expected to be applied across the whole country later this month according to a researcher.
Previous reports had said that system testing and proving would continue until the end of the year however this announcement would seem to indicate that these tests are already successful or complete.
Trials and services using other mobile standards have been reported as taking place across China in recent months and when asked about how these are affected by this announcement a SARFT official said that   “ there are no conflicts of interest between Chinese mobile services” and went on to say “The real fight is between the domestic industry and foreign standard makers”
Commenting on these announcements a Chinese mobile service provider is quoted as saying that it would be difficult to promote the new standard “It will take a while before cell phone TV services with the new standard   can penetrate the market” and “Few people are prepared to invest in the new-born standard”
Source: TMCnet
Item added: 31st October 2006

Chinese Digital Terrestrial TV Broadcasting standard approved
Without fuss the latest Bulletin of national standards number 8, from the Standardization Administration of China, includes a standard for Terrestrial Digital Broadcasting. Listed as item 28. The standard, number GB20600-2006 is entitled ‘Framing structure, Channel coding and modulation for digital television terrestrial broadcasting system’
The new standard issued on the 18th August 2006 is reported by some observers to be more generally called DMB-T/H (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting Terrestrial/Handheld)
DMB-T/H is a result of work at both the Tsinghua University in Beijing and Jiaotong University in Shanghai and is thought to be more a co-existence of the two separate standards developed by these universities rather than an all embracing single standard integrating both approaches.
Tsinghua’s system TDS-OFDM (Time Domain Synchronous OFDM) uses multicarriers just like the DVB-T and Japanese ISDB-T whilst Jiatongs ADTB-T (Advanced Digital Television Broadcast Terrestrial) is a single carrier vestigial sideband system based on the US 8-VSB standard.
Sources: Various plus Standardisation Administration of China
Item added: 4th September 2006
 

Digital TV standard to be unveiled soon, but what about Mobile TV
China will soon announce its new digital television standard and has warned that all Chinese television networks must use it if they wish to continue broadcasting, according to an article on the DTG website.
The State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced that the Chinese developed standard would soon be unveiled.
It will then be promoted for a year before being made compulsory for use by all broadcasters.
The standard is reported to cover digital terrestrial, satellite and cable TV as well as mobile television services when it launches in the next few months.
However the situation on mobile TV may not be as clear as it seems. Recent press announcements seem to agree that China has just released two new contenders for the mobile TV standard.
The competitors are Terrestrial-Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (T-MMB), a derivative of South Korea's Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting and STiMi, short for satellite and terrestrial interaction multimedia.
The DVB-H standard for mobile TV and South Korea's T-DMB standards are already on trial and the new Chinese standards will also be trialed throughout 2006. The chosen standard will then move into commercial trials during 2007 so that it is ready for the Olympics in 2008.
Sources: Various plus DTG News
Item added: 29th August 2006

China begins switch to digital
The government of China has announced that it will introduce digital television to areas throughout the country, following a successful three-year trial.
It is estimated that China has 400 million television viewers of which around 30 million are expected to sign up for digital services in the next few years.
At present more than 120 pay-TV channels licensed by the state are available on cable channels both analogue and digital, using DVB-C whilst China's own system is perfected. Direct-to-home DVB-S digital broadcasts from satellite are scheduled to begin later this year so that existing analogue cable circuits do not need to be updated for the new digital services.
China is still evaluating its own home designed digital terrestrial television system and the longer this takes the more likely it is that DTH digital services will be the most popular means of receiving television in the short term.
According to a DTG report a number of cities, including Qingdao and Mianyang, have already completed the upgrade to digital cable while several municipalities and provinces, such as Shanghai and Guangxi, are in the midst of a switchover.
Main source: DTG
Item added: 23rd May 2006

Recent reports say that a draft DTT standard has been submited by SARFT
Earlier this month the vice-minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in China (SARFT) is reported by the China People’s Daily as saying” that China has developed its own digital TV standard based on the European standard” and that a draft home-grown digital terrestrial TV standard has been submitted to the National Radio, Film and Television Standardisation Commission. The draft also needs to be approved by the Standardisation Administration in China.
China is also expecting to develop its own digital satellite standard as well as one for IPTV.
Sources: advanced-television.com  Telecompaper
Item added: 30th March 2006


Digital TV progress in China
China is to digitise cable TV in four stages, according to SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television).
Stage one will digitise all the major cities in the eastern and western parts of the country as well as provincial capitals in the centre of China by the end of 2005.
The second stage, to be completed by 2008, will digitise the remaining cities in the eastern parts and most in the western part of the country. The third stage will cover all cities defined as above country level and most counties in the middle and western areas. The final fourth stage will end in 2015 when the whole of western part of the country can connect to digital cable. The plan also mentions that China will begin direct to home satellite broadcasting in 2006 and stop analogue TV broadcasts in 2015. Terrestrial digital TV broadcasting is set to start by 2008 but China still has to decide whether to use its own home grown system or one of the other world-wide standards.
Main Source: advanced television.com, 23rd August 2005

IMS Research analyses the Chinese market
China had more than 25 million digital satellite TV households in a total market of 340million, at the end of 2004, according to a report form IMS Research entitled " The Chinese Market for Digital Set-Top Boxes".
IMS made these estimates, which do not agree with official figures,  by extensive interviews with STB manufacturers, industry professionals and others with vested interests in the satellite TV market. IMS estimate in addition that the satellite market in China will grow to 60 million by the end of 2010 if the government launch of services keeps to schedule and the extensive "grey market in STB's" continues to be tolerated.
Source: advanced television.com, 17th August 2005

China looks to private capital to speed up DTV transition
According to Advanced-Television.com China is speeding up its transition to digital TV by encouraging private capital investment in the digitisation of its TV networks, the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has revealed.
China wants to achieve a targeted 30 million digital TV users by the end of 2005.
Source: Advanced-Television.com (27th July 2005)
Item added: 1st August 2005

Chinese Broadcasters buy DVB-T transmitters from Harris
Harris Broadcast announced the supply of DVB-T transmitters to Chinese broadcasters in a press release dated 14th June 2005.
Harris Atlas DTV660 DVB-T transmitters will be supplied to five Chinese Broadcasters. Yunnan TV, Heilongjiang TV, Zhejiang TV, Chongqing TV and Hangzhou TV.
All have chosen Harris DVB-T enabled transmitters ranging from 1.5 to 3.4kW as well as a selection of low-power DVB-T transmitters and exciters.
Source: Harris (press release)
Item added: 15th July 2005

Previous

Digital Broadcasting in China

DTTB development and deployment
China is progressing with the development of its own system for Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB), although some DVB-T services continue to be used in several cities across China.

There are three domestic competitors vying for the standard choice in China:
Tsinghua University (DMB-T),
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (ADBT-T) and the
Academy of Broadcasting Science (ABS).

At the present time Digital Cable systems are the main focus with DTTB development being a lower priority.

DVB-C deployment
Chinese industry and the Administration has concentrated on the deployment of DVB-C services in recent years with a view to meeting the target of 30 million DVB-C subscribers at the end of 2005.

The business model proposed by SARFT focuses on free set-top-boxes being distributed by the cable operators.
Individual operators would prefer lower cost alternatives such as IDTVs being sold with decoders already included.

DTH Service
SARFT would like to use DTH to extend the coverage of television services outside the urban areas.

DVB-S2 remains the favoured solution in the industry and SARFT are planning studies to evaluate the performance of DVB-S2 systems.
DVB, 4th April 2005

Mobile TV: Will DVB have a market in China
In the DVB-SCENE issue 13, page 9, Scot Ge , Editor of Broadcast & Production China, gives his personal opinion on the continued use of DVB-T in China. To read the full article click on the link below to download the complete magazine, absolutely free.

Background

China is developing its own Digital Terrestrial TV system (DTT) and still has to decide which system to use. From an initial six system designs only two remain. These are ADB-T (Advanced Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial) which is a single carrier system from Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and DMB-T (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting Terrestrial) a multicarrier system from Beijing's Tsinghua University. An additional multicarrier system called Timi was also demonstrated in October at ISBT2003 but the status of this development is not known.
DVB-T fixed and mobile trials have been taking place in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities may also take part. The trial in Shanghai enables bus passengers to watch digital news, sport, stock exchange reports and commercials from 11 Shanghai TV stations.
DVB-T, ATSC (8-VSB) and ISDB-T are still being considered in the decision making process which should occur during 2005 or at the latest 2006.

The information provided comes from many sources and whilst DVB believe it to be correct we cannot guarantee its accuracy.
If you have more up to date information or corrections please send them to dvb@dvb.org
Last page update: 31st October 2006, Barry Tew