The State Administration of the Radio, Film and Television, watchdog of the country's entertainment programme makers, said Wednesday that it will kick off a national digital movement and establish a digitalized broadcasting system in the next five years.

Zhou Daqun, an official from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), who is in charge of radios and TVs, said it will bring "a second spring'' to Chinese TV makers who have been sapped by endless price wars.

"The promotion of digital TV programmes will push TV producers to upgrade their products and enable them to find a way out of the low-end price cutting'' he said.

Hu Qiusheng, the manager of TCL's TV department, expects the promotion of digital TV to unveil a large market for TV makers.

It is estimated that if 15 per cent of urban families watch digital TV programmes, the annual sales of digital TV sets will reach 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion).

"The HiD (home information display) TV, an intermediate product between an analogue TV set and digital one, was launched by TCL earlier this year and was well received by the market. I believe digital TV will be popular among rich consumers since it offers high-definition pictures,'' he said.

He said TCL had been developing related technologies to grasp the emerging huge market.

China's urban TV market has been saturated, while the market in the countryside is harder to explore, as many farmers can not afford to buy TV sets. Statistics from the China Survey Panel of Home Electric Appliances indicated that 100 urban families own 115 colour TVs.

Experts said the price war has caused TV makers to lose profits of 20 million yuan (US$2.4 billion).

MII's Vice-Minister Qu Weizhi warned earlier this month that the industry would collapse if TV makers remain entangled in price wars and found no other way out.

Before his remarks, the sector's two leading companies, Changhong and Konka, released their first ever profit warning for their interim financial report.

But experts said the TV industry should not be too optimistic about the digital TV markets in the short term.

Zhang Jiamou, professor from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said the prevail of digital TV programmes required at least 10 years, which means a growing market for digital TV sets will not surface immediately as expected.

(China Daily 08/24/2001)