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Interactive Services in China Raise More than Revenues
by Dale Cripps on November 21, 2006 Category: Global & Worldview

For those of you keeping up with the rest of the world this article just in from IMS Research should prove interesting. _Dale
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Shanghai, China (November 21, 2006) - Interactive digital set-top box shipments to the Chinese market increased by an estimated 563% in 2006 to 212,000 units, according to a new report published by IMS Research. This market segment is forecast to grow strongly and to reach about 5.3 million units in 2010.

To digitize current analog cable TV households in urban areas, the Chinese government has adopted its "Total Migration Plan." Under this plan, operators purchase digital cable set-top boxes and give them to subscribers for free. In most cases, the operators are allowed to raise monthly subscriber fees to pay back the initial investments made in boxes.

Previously, to reduce the initial investments, operators tended to buy basic set-top boxes at low prices. However, this is changing gradually as operators increasingly realize that offering value-added services, such as video-on-demand, will be their main source of increased business revenues in the future. Interactive set-tops are essential if subscribers are to receive those value-added services.

Senior analyst, Richard Jun Li commented: "The growing Chinese economy will stimulate the increasing use of value-added services via digital TV networks as average household income grows. The change of the operators' attitude towards interactive services results in strong growth in the interactive set-top boxes segment."

IMS Research is a supplier of market research and consultancy services to global electronics markets. The company is supported by headquarters in Wellingborough, UK and offices in Austin, Texas and Shanghai, China. www.imsresearch.com

Posted by Dale Cripps, November 21, 2006 10:27 AM

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About Dale Cripps

Dale Cripps is a professional journalist who has focused two thirds of his career on the subject of high-definition television. Upon completing his education in business and service in the military he formed Cripps and Associates, South Pasadena, California, in 1964, which operated as a market-development company for aerospace services. In 1983 he turned to television and began what has become a 20 year campaign to pioneer HDTV. For fifteen of those years he published the well-regarded HDTV Newsletter (an international monthly written for television professionals). During much of this same time he also served as the HDTV-Technical Editor for "Widescreen Review Magazine." On November 16, 1998 he launched the Internet distributed HDTV Magazine, which remains the only consumer publication devoted exclusively to high-definition television. In April of 2002 he co-founded with Tedson Meyers of Coudert Bros, the High-definition Television Association of America, which is presently based in Washington DC. Cripps is the president of this organization. Mr. Cripps is a charter member of the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers and honored by that organization with the DTV Press Leadership Award of 2002. He makes his home in Oregon.