China Telecom, China's largest fixed-line company, and Shanghai Media Group launched a joint Internet TV service, as companies in China's maturing telecoms market forage into Web-based areas, a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said the IPTV service, called BesTV, may reach 80,000 to 100,000 households by the end of 2006, according to BesTV COO Li Huaiyu.
Shanghai Media Group earlier reported that is the first company in China to receive a license from Beijing to run IPTV services.
With growth slowing in China's telecoms market, the world's biggest with over 360 million fixed-line and over 430 million mobile users, China Telecom and rival China Netcom Group are looking at newer, non-voice services, the Reuters report said.
Both companies have spent large sums upgrading their networks in recent years for the deployment of high-speed data services, including broadband Internet and IPTV, the report said.