Published:
30-Jun-08
China has successfully launched a new satellite, China-Sat 9, in order to boost coverage of TV signals to rural areas of the country. The 9 June launch, delayed by over one year, is aimed at bringing television penetration to 98 per cent of the country from the current level of around 96 per cent. China's first direct to home satellite, SinoSat 2, failed shortly after its launch in November 2006. The new satellite was positioned at 92.2 degree East on 20 June. It has a designed life of more than 15 years. Broadcast in Ku-band, China Sat-9 will provide 47 radio channels and 47 standard definition TV channels, EPG and data broadcasting services. Of the 22 transponders carried, 18 are currently not in service. These are likely to be used in future for pay TV services and broadband interactive services via satellite. The central government is subsidising the retail cost of set-top boxes to the tune of 3.4 billion yuan ($427m). Local governments are expected to provide another 2 billion yuan ($251m). Providers of receivers and set-top boxes are all domestic suppliers, including: SVA, Haier, Haisense, Skyworth, Co-ship, Jiuzhou, Changhong, Hunan Aerospace Information, Ideal Technology, Yinhe, Guoke Tech and Granvision.
Our take...
Although individual installation of satellite dishes is illegal in China, satellite service is key to remote rural areas given the country's vast geographic span. Before the launch, SARFT (State Administrator of Radio Film and Television) already covered thousands of rural villages with C-band communication satellite services. The new service will not phase out previous C-band broadcasting service, according to industry sources in Beijing.
It is estimated that over 700,000 villages representing qualified households between 20m to 35m are now unable to receive TV transmissions. SARFT is believed to be in charge of the whole supply chain of the project from bidding, manufacturing of equipment to product launching to market. Chips are restricted to the domestic standard ABS-S, and do not support DVB-S. This is to prevent reception of satellite signals from foreign satellites. Trials of the ABS-S standard have been organised by SARFT since January 2008 and shipment to market is expected soon. With the current financing situation, Screen Digest expects shipments of DTH boxes to reach 5m within 2008.
China,
