Chinese subscribers of direct satellite television will exceed 15 million by 2010, according to a report published on Wednesday.

By the first half of this year, Chinese subscribers of cable TV had reached 140 million. Two thirds of households still receive wireless TV signals and some regions receive no signals, says the 2006-2007 Report on China's Satellite Television Industry.

It notes that direct satellite television has an advantage in signal coverage and can be applied in commercial operation.
The government and broadcasting industry are discussing policies.

The report was jointly compiled by a publication owned by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and a research and consulting institute specializing in digital TV called GL Research.

China launched a new-generation high-power communications and broadcast satellite called SinoSat-2 on October 29, but it failed to work because of problems with its solar power panels.

It was developed by the Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology and was designed to serve broadcast, digital and satellite TV and digital broadband multimedia systems on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It was supposed to operate for 15 years.

A substitute satellite, SinoSat-3, would take at least three years to develop, said an SinoSat expert on Tuesday.

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