During this year's China International Radio and Television Information Network Exhibition (CCBN), China electronic newspaper, the CCBN organizing committee and the well-known domestic digital television network dvbn jointly held the 2009 China digital television technology trend forum with upstream and downstream enterprises of the digital television industry chain. At the forum, government officials, heads of relevant enterprises, experts and scholars expressed wonderful views on the development hotspots of digital TV industry.
     At present, the digital TV industry is developing rapidly. With the vigorous promotion of the State Administration of radio, film and television, the digitization process in the fields of terrestrial wireless, live satellite and mobile multimedia broadcasting has begun to be promoted in an all-round way, and important achievements have been made. In addition, since 2008, the live satellite system has been used for signal coverage in remote areas. Mobile multimedia broadcasting technology has also successfully served the Beijing Olympic Games. At present, CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting) coverage network has been established in 157 cities. The development process of digital radio and television can be said to be the process of transforming traditional media with new technology and upgrading traditional media with new media in the field of radio and television. In this process, many new technologies need to be further studied and discussed. We should study and master these new technologies and explore and develop the core business of new media.
     This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of new China. China's Radio and television industry is standing at a new historical starting point. The radio and television industry is in a new stage of digital, networked, economical and large-scale development. I hope China's radio, film and television will prosper and make greater achievements in the process of radio and television digitization. The number of digital TV users in China has exceeded 45 million. However, with the large-scale promotion of digital TV, some problems existing in the digital TV industry are highlighted in the following three aspects: first, the payment standard of users' digital TV has been improved, and the channels of digital TV have also increased, but these increased channels are only a simple repetition, and users are not interested in the contents of the increased channels; Second, the fund for radio and television operators to buy set-top boxes has reached about 20 billion yuan. Generally speaking, after an industry has invested 20 billion yuan, at least 20% of the cash income will become profits, but radio and television operators have not obtained corresponding profits; Third, due to the price of set-top boxes and other reasons, it is very difficult for suppliers to provide relevant technologies, equipment and terminals. The above three problems need to be solved urgently.
     The development of digital TV has two stages: one is the overall translation stage, the other is the post translation stage. In these two stages, although the industry has made a lot of efforts, frankly speaking, the effect is not ideal. At present, the overall translation mainly needs to solve two problems: one is to do a good job in public welfare services, such as sunshine broadcasting; Another aspect is to improve user satisfaction as much as possible. After all, the viewing price has risen. In fact, strengthening value-added services has two main functions: one is to enable operators to obtain greater benefits on the network through some new services; The second is to help operators seize users through some attractive services. However, in general, in the first round of development after the overall translation, users' stickiness to digital TV is not high, so we should enable users to independently select their favorite businesses and seize users in the second round of development. We can use the broadband network service based on TV to make the cable TV network gain greater competitive advantage.
     Since the 1970s, the performance, function or business of TV has been successfully expanded or improved in three aspects: first, the color of TV picture has changed from black and white to color, and the image quality has changed from standard definition to current HD. We have successfully enabled users to watch TV more comfortably; Second, TV sets have expanded from being connected with video recorders to being connected with DVDs, which solves the problem of the source of content; Third, game console has become a supporting product of TV, and game function has become an important function of TV. Whether it is possible for us to create TV broadband network programs by combining with the Internet according to the business characteristics of TV is a very worth thinking about. Digital TV value-added service needs the interaction and joint promotion of operators, users and enterprises.
     From now on, in the digital TV industry chain after the overall translation, the set-top box software industry must be a big cake. However, the STB software industry can really develop only if it conforms to the development trend of digital TV industry and technology. At present, the overall translation of digital TV in many regions has entered the post translation stage, and the digital TV market and the whole industry will enter a benign development stage in a relatively short time. When our value-added service products can develop healthily, the set-top box can also enter the stage of market-oriented sales, and the cause of set-top box software will get great development.
     The international financial crisis in 2008 did not have a great impact on the global set-top box market. At present, the global set-top box market presents the following three characteristics: first, the set-top box market is still in the boom cycle; Second, in terms of product types, satellite set-top boxes have the largest shipments in the global set-top box Market; Third, a series of changes are taking place in the resource supply and product demand of STB industry. At present, China has become a major manufacturer of set-top boxes in the world. In 2008, the total shipments of set-top boxes in China increased significantly, and the shipments of set-top boxes made in China have accounted for 66.83% of the total global shipments. Nearly half of this total shipment is the shipment of satellite set-top boxes. At present, Shenzhen, China is forming an industrial cluster of set-top box manufacturing.
     In 2008, set-top boxes made in China were mainly sold to overseas markets. The set-top box products for overseas markets are mainly satellite set-top boxes and terrestrial set-top boxes. Among them, the export volume of satellite set-top boxes is the largest, mainly sold to the United States, India, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Egypt and Romania. At present, China has occupied a pivotal position in the satellite set-top box supply market. The export volume of China's terrestrial STB is second only to that of Satellite STB. North America and Europe are the main export markets of China's terrestrial STB. Among them, set-top boxes supporting DVB-T standard are mainly sold to Europe, the Middle East and other regions.
     According to the survey of Gran research company, the export volume of China's wired set-top boxes in 2008 was relatively small, but it has increased significantly compared with 2007, and the products are mainly sold to the United States and other countries. At present, China's export set-top box products are mainly medium and low-end set-top boxes. OEM for foreign set-top box brands is a major feature of China's export set-top box market. China's set-top box market has been developing steadily from 2006 to 2008. According to the survey of Gran research company, although China's set-top box industry was affected by the Wenchuan earthquake and the international financial crisis, it still maintained a steady upward trend in terms of shipments in 2008. By the end of 2008, China's set-top box shipments had reached 34.553 million units, an increase of 12.84% compared with 2007. Due to the increasing demand for satellite set-top boxes and the sustainable development of cable market, China's set-top box market will continue to maintain steady growth. It is estimated that in 2009, the global total shipment of Chinese made set-top boxes will exceed 100 million units, and the shipment in China's domestic market is expected to reach 41 million units. The overseas market is still very important for Chinese set-top box manufacturers. In terms of the development trend of set-top box technology, Chinese set-top box chips will develop in the direction of high integration. In terms of coding technology, MPEG2 is still the mainstream technology in China's set-top box market, and the proportion of products conforming to MPEG4, H.264 and other coding technologies will be increasing.