CHINA is expected to double its number of Internet-protocol TV users this year - even as a dispute continues over which industry standard to use, officials said yesterday during a forum in Shanghai.
China Netcom and SVA Group support the homegrown IPTV standard audio and video code standard, but Shanghai Media Group and China Telecom, which boast the country's biggest IPTV subscriber base, use the foreign H.264 standard.
IPTV is an interactive service that reaches viewers' homes via broadband connections. It provides weather reports, stock information, sports and other customized content on demand.
"AVS is a homegrown technology with a reasonable patent charge, and we believe it will be adopted nationwide," said Wang Guozhong, vice director of SVA's central research academy and an official in the AVS Industry Alliance.
The patent cost for each AVS decoding system is one yuan (13 US cents) while the overseas standard H.264's patent cost is US$2.50, according to Wang. The latter provides better high-definition video reception, experts said.
China Netcom chose AVS for its IPTV service, which it is testing in six cities in northeastern China, including Dalian, with about 150,000 users.
China Telecom said it won't use AVS in the short term, preferring the more "mature technology" of H.264. Shanghai Telecom, in cooperation with SMG, launched IPTV services in Shanghai and Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, and has more than 200,000 IPTV users now.