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), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
RSS