China Digital TV, the largest maker of conditional access (CA) systems for digital cable television on the mainland, expects product replacement and value-added service will drive growth.
The mainland has about 150 million cable subscribers, almost half of the country's 347 million television viewing households.
China Digital's CA system consists of smart cards and software, which enable digital cable network operators to control the distribution of content and value-added services to their subscribers and block unauthorised access.
It benefits from a government policy to switch from analogue to digital signals for television broadcasting by 2010 and complete digitalisation of cable television by 2015.
Digital cable subscriptions on the mainland reached 25 million households by the end of last year and are expected to grow to over 110 million by 2011, according to Analysys.
China Digital TV has 50 per cent of the market. The CA system is used by 170 digital television network operators in 27 provinces, which cover more than 70 million households.
China Digital's sales have been skyrocketing in the past three years. Last year, it shipped 7.3 million smart cards, a far cry from 200,000 in 2004.
