CCTV has denied reports that it will extend free broadcasts of its pay-television service by two months to encourage more people to sign up. Yang Jihong , of Fengyun Media, China Central Television's digital pay-TV arm, said subscribers were required to start paying for the service at the start of this month. The Beijing Times newspaper had reported on Sunday that the company's six-channel service had attracted fewer than 5,000 new subscribers, prompting it to extend the year-long free trial - due to end this month - for two months. The six channels offer a mixture of sports and entertainment. They cost from 8 to 10 yuan each per month. Ms Yang said the confusion might have been caused by some local agents who offered to waive two months of fees for new subscribers. She said the service reached about 60 million households in more than 80 cities, but could not say how many new customers had signed up. 'We don't have the national subscriber data currently. It will come out in October,' she said. There were 180,000 potential subscribers who already had set-top converter boxes for digital pay-TV, Ms Yang said. 'In Guizhou, more than 1,000 people signed up for our service in the first week of September,' she said. Company operation supervisor Dong Zhen said charges were already being levied in Sichuan , Shanghai, Guizhou and Chongqing , and would be extended to other areas during the next month. 'In Shanghai, we even started charging in August before the Athens Olympic Games,' Mr Dong said. Zhou Xinye , a Shanghai customs worker, said he was considering subscribing to CCTV's Fengyun package. 'I'm a sports fan and during the Olympics many of the events were only aired on the pay-TV channel,' he said. The Beijing Times also reported that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television had rejected Fengyun's application to air the popular US comedy series Friends, a report denied by the company.
