MUMBAI: China's pubcaster China Central Television (CCTV) will launch its first high-definition digital TV channel on 8 September. the aim is to enable live coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 by digital TV signal.

 
Media reports state that Hangzhou viewers can enjoy HDTV content through the new movie channel.

The channel will feature movies, TV series, documentaries and 3-dimensional animated pictures. After a four-month trial operation in Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, the HDTV service will be formally launched nationwide in January 2006, and the time of play will extend from current 15 hours per day to 18 hours.

 
China currently has 340 million analog colour TV sets. A survey conducted showed that 76.6 per cent of respondents will choose to buy a digital TV set when making a purchase decision on TV sets.