MUMBAI: China is progressing towards a complete shift to digital signal television. An official from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has been quoted in media reports as saying that, all analog signal television programs will be stopped and replaced with digital signals by the year of 2015.

Currently, 41 cities and regions in the country are shifting from analog signal to digital signal, according to the report.

The official also said, some cities including Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Qingdao had already completed the conversion, and others including Dalian, Taiyuan and Foshan are expected to complete their switch-over within the year.

The overall digitalization of cable television will be done in three steps. The first step started in 2003 when the digitalization work began. In the second step which starts in 2006, digitalized satellite live broadcasting technology will be adopted. The third step begins in 2008 when fuller digitalization will be realized.