Digital television industry representatives yesterday expressed their intention to collaborate to tap the massive Greater China market, saying this would create a win-win situation both for the sector and the Chinese audience.
"Taiwan can serve as a digital content provider, as programs produced in the nation are popular among many Chinese-language speaking countries," said Nelson Chang (
To stay in step with global trends, the Taiwan government pledges to bring digital TV service to 50 percent of the nation's households by 2006. Currently, there are three major digital TV operators including China Network Systems, Taiwan Broadband Corp (
Currently, digital TV providers here are merely interested in shifting most of their cable TV programs to the digital platform. This is not nearly enough, Chang said, to fulfill consumers' expectations of digital service. Therefore, Taiwanese content providers need to target China instead of the local market to develop a variety of programs, Chang said.
"I think both the infrastructure and market for digital TV are mature, the next step will be providing what the audience really wants," Chang said.
Chang said China's huge market scale will no doubt drive the industry across the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese government has vowed to promote its digital TV service, aiming to end traditional analog broadcasts in 33 major cities by the end of 2005, the < Gao Yue ( Gao, who joined the forum yesterday via video conferencing, said Shanghai Interactive TV launched its first digital TV channel in China in June. So far they have garnered about 20,000 subscribers, he said. Fundamental to any chance of getting cross-strait cooperation, however, is a unified digital TV system, said Felix Chen ( Taiwan's digital TV service providers have decided to adopt Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) system. But their Chinese counterparts have not yet decided on a broadcasting format. Operators are using a number of different formats there including DVB, Conditional Access (CA) and Advanced Digital Television Broadcast-Terrestrial (ADTB-T) a format developed in China itself. "We're also aware of this problem? I think it will take some time for us to resolve the system differences," Zheng Shibao ( Another issue that was discussed yesterday is the price of set-top box, which is considered too high, and may thereby impeded digital adoption on both sides of the Strait. Descramblers are priced at about 950 yuan in China, and a minimum of NT$3,500 in Taiwan. Liao Ching-chung ( "Most Chinese households cannot afford the device, nor does the price seem acceptable among Taiwanese consumers," Liao told the Taipei Times. "The industrialists should hold back their optimism before solving this issue."
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS