Sun to disrupt TV signal in China

TV signals will be interrupted up to 19 minutes at a time until March 17 due to the sun overpowering satellite signals, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said.

Viewers may experience brief programming interruptions such as fuzzy pictures, still images and even black screens for as long as 19 minutes.

"Sun outages occur twice a year when satellites 'eclipse' the sun at the points of their ground-based receivers. Usually they happen near the spring equinox and autumn equinox," said Zhu Jin, head of the Beijing Planetarium, adding that this happens because the satellite's signals are overpowered by solar radiation.