China makes watching TV cheaper and easier

Many people have experienced the frustrating moment when, as they turn on their TV sets, they have to wait for the advertisements to finish before they can navigate through complicated menus and finally are able to settle down on the couch and enjoy their favorite shows.

In China, this practice is now coming to an end. According to the National Radio and Television Administration, the country's top sector regulator, those annoying adverts that pop up when you turn on a cable TV set or an internet protocol television (aka IPTV) device, have been canceled.

During a news conference on Jan 23, the administration and a number of associated authorities announced that a four-month nationwide project to curb fee stacking and simplify navigation for television services has achieved fruitful results.

The campaign benefited 92.5 million cable TV subscribers and 192 million IPTV users, allowing them to go directly to broadcasts without immediately encountering adverts after starting up the devices. Additionally, the time it took to turn on devices was reduced to less than 35 seconds. The longest previous duration was 118 seconds.

Paid packages — such as those charging for popular shows or theatrical releases — have been reduced by more than half, with those for cable TV dropping by 72 percent, for IPTV by 79 percent and for internet TV by 55 percent. The overall number of paid packages for a single terminal device has been reduced from a peak of 86 to six.

As part of the project, a free channel broadcasting classic TV shows began airing in seven provinces on Jan 15 and will be expanded to other parts of the country from Feb 1.

The number of paid subscribers for cable TV and IPTV surged by 784,700 and 4.29 million, respectively, during the period between late September and late December last year as a result of these beneficial measures. Additionally, active ratings for livestreaming channels have seen a consecutive increase over the past four months, rising by 13.6 percent.

The administration also unveiled key goals for this year, ranging from simplifying remote controls and making TV watching easier for hotel customers to accelerating the proliferation of high-definition TV sets.

Cao Shumin, director of the National Radio and Television Administration, says that more than 80 percent of TV audiences have found it easier to discover free programs since the project was launched.

Cao said that another aim is to help the elderly watch TV shows more easily, as China is on track to become a relatively elderly society and will promote the development of advanced technologies, such as enabling remote control functions via smartphones or voice activation.