(Yicai Global) July 1 -- High definition will be the basic broadcasting mode of China’s television network in three years’ time and many channels will be ultra-high definition, according to the National Radio and Television Administration.

All new cable TV channels and most new satellite channels will be HD or UHD from now on, the regulator said in an industry development plan released last week.

The Internet Protocol Televisions will gradually terminate the transmission of standard-definition wavelengths, it added. By 2025, all TV stations at the county and municipal levels will have their standard definition channels phased out.

There are hundreds of standard definition TV channels in China and their eventual demise poses big opportunities for the HD industry, a media veteran told Yicai Global. The number of HD channels is expected to surge and there could even be as many as 20 UHD channels. It will also spur demand for HD and UHD devices such as televisions and set-top boxes that convert the signals to images.

Most provincial-level TV stations should have fully converted to HD by the end of next year, said Wu Chunyong, an observer of the technology, media and telecoms sectors. The transition should not be difficult for them as the content production costs, such as buying HD and UHD cameras, editing equipment as well as broadcasting vehicles, are becoming less expensive and so are the end user devices, such as TV sets and set-top boxes.

The policy will boost growth in China’s radio and television sector as well as the HD and UHD display making industry, Zhang Weimin, secretary-general of the Audio Video coding Standard Industry Alliance, told Yicai Global.

Content producers, TV stations and TV makers should strengthen the synergy between them to find ways for customers and providers to mutually benefit, said Wu Yi, chairman of 4K Garden, an open platform for the production and distribution of 4k-resolution content.

China had 985 HD channels, eight UHD channels with 4k resolution as well as one UHD channel with 8k-resolution as of the end of last year, according to NRTA data. National broadcaster China Media Group and 25 provincial-level TV stations have already made the shift to HD. There are now 300 million ultra-high-definition users in the country and this is expected to swell to 500 million in the next two years.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor