Population:	1.3 billion
Coverage:	8%

Last update: 03-09-2011

The Chinese regulator, SARFT, chose DAB for the industrial standard in May 2006.  DMB/DAB is now on air in 11 cities across the country. After the Guangzhou launch of commercial services in 2007, the Ministry of Industry and Information (MII) decided to issue licences for DMB in mobile phones.  

Chinese DMB Operator, GTM, will provide the DMB and CMMB services during the Asia Games in Guangzhou, the biggest province in China, later in 2011. GTM also plan to order 50,000 DMB receivers for the Asia Games.

^{Photo of Mavis Ma, University of Hong Kong}

Beijing Jolon, the biggest local broadcaster in Beijing has launch ‘Push Radio’ based on DAB in 2010 in Beijing. Beijing Jolon broadcast 30 hours - or 25 program channels every day through Push Radio.16 Audio programs are broadcast 15 times per day and downloaded onto receivers. Value added services such as news, data and slideshow have been provided into the Push Radio services. Beijing Jolon are upgrading their latest generation receivers to support DAB+. A trial of Push Radio is being planned for Brisbane in August/September 2011. 

Coverage is currently available in the following provinces: Guangzhou, Beijing (approximate coverage: 12 million people), Shanghai (expected coverage: 15 million people), Dalian (expected coverage: 5.4 million people), Henan, Hangzhou, Shengyang, Jiangsu, Shenzhen, Changsha and Kunming.

• Beijing: 20 radio services (16 of which are simulcast), four video services, two data services by Beijing Jolon (commercial broadcaster) on Band III.
• Dalian: Dalian Tiantu Cable Television Network received a licence for digital radio and mobile TV via DAB/DMB and plans to launch four radio services and one video service

There are various retailers in Beijing, Shanghai & Guangzhou.

Lenevo was the first Chinese manufacturer to develop a DMB mobile phone for the Chinese market (Lenovo ET980T). To date over 80,000 devices have been sold in Beijing alone.

Guangdong Province has had an ongoing Band III trial in the Pearl River Delta area, broadcasting eight video and four radio services. Commercial services are currently available from the Guangdong Mobile TV Media.

Shanghai has had L-band trials of DAB based services with four video, four radio and three data services since 2005.

Trials of DAB/DMB based services are expected to begin shortly in other locations across China. 

China’s State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) manage licences and standards in China. It was recently announced by SARFT that no trials of digital broadcasting were permitted without a licence. Currently, Eureka 147 based services are the only European digital broadcasting technology that has been granted licences in China. In 2007 four operators were granted trial licences and, following recent SARFT approval, there are likely to be more DAB and mobile TV licences in the near future.