China will reschedule its timetable of developing digital cable television in cities, officials said.

And more cities will give free decoders instead of selling them in order to attract subscribers.

"The situation has been changing rapidly over the past year, so we have to adjust the timetable and will release a new one soon," said an official surnamed Liu.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television published a timetable last June, hoping for at least 30 million digital cable TV subscribers by the end of 2005.

It also planned to convert all municipalities, cities in eastern regions and most provincial capitals in central and western regions to digital broadcasting by that time.

But the situation is not developing as the administration has anticipated.

Many cities have found it difficult to attract more subscribers, with the number reaching just 20,000 in cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing.

"The problem lies in the digital cable providers of these cities, who were trying to promote digital cable TV in China in the same way as in other countries, but this does not conform with China's reality," said Wang Xiaojie, an senior official from the administration.

Most of the digital cable providers attract more subscribers by broadcasting TV programs different from those offered by free channels. Subscribers have to pay around 1,000 yuan (US$120) to buy a special decoder in order to watch the programs on a normal television.

"But the reality in China is that people have been accustomed to enjoying free television, and Chinese digital cable providers are forbidden to broadcast pornography like some foreign digital cables do to attract subscribers," Wang said.

The official cited Foshan in South China's Guangdong Province as an particular example.

Foshan started the promotion of digital cable three years ago, with overseas TV programs being the major attraction. Only 6,000 subscribers were signed up on the city.

"When the digital cable provider in Foshan finally shut down the service because no more users were subscribing to the service, only one person called asking why. The rest had either already stopped subscribing, or did not even care," she said.

To encourage more people to opt for digital TV, the city has decided to give away the decoders for free.

"Hundreds of people line up every day to get the free decoder in Foshan, and the number of digital cable users in Foshan has at least quadrupled," she said.

The official revealed that Beijing, Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, and Dalian in Liaoning Province will also adopt the method in the near future.

In another development, the administration has recently issued digital TV licenses to four companies to break the monopoly held by China Central Television on digital television.

(China Daily August 16, 2004)