MUMBAI: China Central Television (CCTV), will, launch the country's first digital high-definition television (HDTV) channel on, 1 January 2006. The pay channel will broadcast 18 hours a day.

Making a formal announcement of the plans, Central Digital Television Media Company, an affiliate of CCTV, said the programming would include events such as the 2006 soccer World Cup in Berlin. Reportedly, China Central Television has been testing the new digital high-definition channel since September in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province.

According to the release, the government plans to begin shifting all of its television broadcasting to digital in 2008 and cease analogue transmission entirely by 2015.

High-definition images offer viewers clearer, more vivid images than conventional TV. Digital format allows for the transmission of greater volume of data and combines audio and visual content, rather than dividing the two, as in analog format.