The Beijing Olympics will showcase more than mainland sporting and organisational ability. China's promise of a hi-tech Games means the nation's fledgling domestic mobile television sector is being treated as both a business opportunity and a means to show off its technological know-how.
But whether the service wins a gold medal with consumers remains to be seen, given that major regulatory issues still need to be sorted out. The mainland service - which will allow television audiences to watch their favourite programmes on the go through a newly constructed digital network - is already lagging behind those overseas, with different regulatory bodies and authorities struggling to agree on a national standard.
The impasse was seen as inevitable, given that mobile television straddles both broadcasting and telecommunications, falling through the cracks in the turf fight between regulators of both sectors. The broadcasting regulator, which controls content and ideology, wants to extend its influence by introducing a proprietor technology standard. At the same time, the telecommunications regulator, together with mobile operators, want to uphold their advantage of having a market with over 300 million mobile users to bargain for a leading role in any new service.
Ideally, the service should serve as a test to how regulators can work together to advance the domestic technology sector and widen the reach to urban consumers. Under existing rules, the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has full responsibility over all content-related issues, including broadcasting channels and the programmes delivered to the audience. The Ministry of Information Industry is responsible for overseeing the communications sector such as broadband internet access, mobile telephone and fixed-line operators.
'For the broadcasters with official rights to distribute content, they need new digital channels to reach new users,' said one industry watcher. 'For telecommunications operators, they want content or TV programmes to stimulate growth in the broadband and mobile data businesses.'
The nation's mobile television service can be divided into two categories. The first is the in-band mobile television service, which is delivered through the mobile network. China Mobile and China Unicom have already launched services on their 2.5G mobile network, enabling users to watch short video clips on mobile telephones.