The two main Chinese regulators are working on a way to free up the rights for broadcasters and telecommunications operators to compete with one another.
This reflects changes in the US and European markets which happened at various points from 1990 onwards, and would mean an end to telecommunications operators being banned from providing TV services and cable operators banned from offering phone services.
Reports under the general heading of ‘convergence’ were published in the South China Morning Post and they have since been widely repeated this week across telecommunications news services.
The Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) would either swap some responsibilities, which was suggested by the Morning Post, or China may eventually find it more logical to merge the two regulators, a step that has found favor in a few parts of the world, though not all, as they struggled with this same problem.
Any adjustments in the responsibilities of the two regulators would have far reaching affects on new services. For instance the cellular operators are currently banned from offering broadcast mobile TV services by Sarft, and have to partner with broadcasters which have been mandated to use a particular satellite based technology for both mobile and terrestrial digital TV.
The Chinese cellular operators would be far happier taking their own decisions on technology and deciding for themselves which broadcasters to partner with, something that MII might support more than SARFT.
China appears to be making the moves based on how things are currently working out in Hong Kong, where voice, data and cable-television networks are already allowed to work on a single internet platform.
The news came in a statement released this week outlining China’s main tasks for the year ahead, but no details of any timetable were released.