China Mobile and the China Broadcast Corp. (CBC) have jointly launched a mobile TV service using the domestically-developed CMMB standard.
The network, now rolled out in 303 cities around the country, offers access to six channels at an initial price of 6 yuan (88 cents) per month, 21st Century Business Herald reported.
Some 845,000 CMMB-capable handsets have already been sold, and the partners had set a target of 5 million customers in the first year, the paper said.
The launch was hailed in domestic news sites as the first commercial milestone in China’s tortuous efforts to converge cable and telecom since the State Council two months ago called for an accelerated timetable.
Launching the service on Monday, China Mobile Chairman and CEO Jianzhou Wang described the partnership with CBC – a subsidiary of state broadcast ministry SARFT, “as a successful example of practical cooperation between China Mobile and SARFT.”
He said China Mobile and SARFT had begun working together on mobile TV during the 2008 Olympics and had signed an agreement a year ago to jointly develop mobile TV.
The SARFT-backed CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting) technology is China’s official mobile TV standard.