China's 1st digital pay-TV gets 1 lakh subscribers

The number of subscribers of China's first digital pay-TV network, founded in September last year, has exceeded 100,000, the network claimed here.

"Our network has now taken up some 95 per cent of China's digital pay-TV market share," China Digital TV Media Inc Ltd (CDM) said in a press release.

"Within only five months since last September, the number of the CDM's clients has grown rapidly to more than 100,000, and our programme providers are already seeing profits," the release said.

It also said CDM had so far signed service contracts with over 90 cable television networks across the country with a total of 63.07 million subscribers, among whom some 490,000 were set-top box users.

The CDM network currently runs 17 digital pay-TV channels, offering a wide range of programmes including movies, music, sports, shopping, education, TV guide and even computer games.

"In 2005 we plan to open a dozen more special channels to cater to the audience's different tastes," Xinhua  news agency quoted company sources as saying.

China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) approved the digital pay-TV broadcast by five networks last year, with CDM being the first one to launch the service on August 9, 2004.