China is expected to sign up 30 million cable digital television subscribers by 2005, according to a five-year plan drawn up by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

Though the plan says that many cities in China will broadcast digital television in two years' time, it still needs to do more to sell the technology to consumers to fulfill its target, reports Monday's China Daily.

Under the plan, the nation is divided into three parts, in addition to the four municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing.

The eastern zone includes Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong, while the western zone includes Xinjiang, Tibet, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, and Guizhou. And the central zone is composed of the remaining provinces and regions on the Chinese mainland.

Before the year of 2005, all cities in the eastern zone, capital cities and a few smaller cities in the central zone and some capital cities in the western zone will start cable digital broadcasting.

Some 40 Chinese cities and regions have already carried out digital television broadcasts on a trial basis and more small- and medium- sized cities have announced plans to start digital television broadcasting in one or two years.

But Many cable TV subscribers still regard watching digital TV as a "luxury" since it means adding a decoding device, which costs at least 1,000 yuan (120.5 US dollars), so that their TV sets recognize the digital signal.

The extra cost has turned the cable TV network into a bottleneck for the digital television development, the paper quotes Wang Xiaojie, an official with the SARFT.

The current cable network is able to transmit 40 to 50 channels at most, leaving no room for further development while digital television is better solution since it allows for 400 to 500 channels, said Wang.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2003)