SATELLITE & CABLE: Cable investment policy delayed again as turf war continues in China

Regulations governing investments in China's cable television network are set to be released by the end of this year; however, the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) are fighting over which of them will be in charge. MII is in charge of everything related to postal and telecommunication matters, while SARFT regulates the broadcast industry, but convergence of services has clouded the issue. The cable TV industry is often referred to as a secondary infrastructure network, which attracts substantial investment because it is seen as having the potential to bring together television, Internet and telephony services through the use of convergence technology. There are currently about 90 million cable subscribers in China and there are plans for a national cable network. SARFT's information network centre director-general Chen Xiaoning estimated 120 million cable subscribers would be hooked up to the network by the end of the restructuring process in 2001. However, a temporary ban on new cable investment was ordered by the central government because of disputes between cable and telecom operators last year. The government recently issued a directive which specified that telecom operators should not get involved in the radio and television business and that radio and TV companies should not become involved in the telecom business. This has had the temporary effect of halting moves to converge telecommunication and television services. At the same time, however, MII and SARFT are working on new regulations to be issued by the end of this year. Meanwhile, analysts speculated that although China is all but assured of being a WTO member, SARFT will likely prohibit foreign ownership.

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