8 Nov 2010 12:00

Beijing to distribute 2.6 mln HDTV set-top boxes by end of 2011

Shanghai. November 8. INTERFAX-CHINA - Beijing Municipality plans to provide 2.6 million high-definition television (HDTV) set-top boxes to household cable TV subscribers by the end of 2011 in order to promote HDTV services, domestic media reported on Nov. 8.

Beijing Evening News quoted Wang Liping, a representative with the Beijing branch of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), as saying that 300,000 HDTV set-top boxes were distributed in Beijing in 2009 and that by the end of this year, an additional one million units will have been distributed.

According to Wang, the remaining 1.3 million HDTV set-top boxes will be offered in 2011.

Gehua Cable TV Network Co. Ltd., Beijing's sole cable TV operator, will provide the set-top boxes after it garnered RMB 420 million ($61.89 million) in subsidies from the Beijing Municipal government in order to provide rebates applicable toward the purchase of the units, Interfax previously report.

-YXY