Shanghai Daily news

Jiao Tong University said yesterday it will install 20,000 of its proprietary digital broadcast receivers in Shanghai this year in a bid to boost market penetration prior to the adoption of a national standard.
"We will cooperate with Shanghai Media Group to put 15,000 of the new receivers in taxis and 5,000 in bus stations," said Wang Yao, a spokesman for Shanghai High Definition Digital Innovation Ltd, the project company established by Jiao Tong University to develop and implement a digital TV standard.
The company installed its first 900 receivers in city taxis last month under a cooperative arrangement with SMG.
The company said it is also in talks with broadcasters in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to expand its turf.
Industry insiders said Jiao Tong University, which competes with two other entities to develop a national standard for digital television, is trying to establish a dominant position in the local market before the standard is issued.
China was expected to announce its decision on the standard by the end of last year but failed to do so.
Meanwhile, the Fudan School of Microelectronics said yesterday it will place orders with Shanghai-based Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation to manufacture its in-house-developed circuits based on a standard developed by Tsinghua University, Jiao Tong's biggest rival in the national competition.
The government has said the final standard will be a combined result of three proposals from Tsinghua, Jiao Tong and the research arm of the state TV administration. But experts cast doubt on whether the three different technologies can be merged into one.
China is expected to begin a nationwide changeover to digital technology in 2008. Older TV sets won't work by 2015 because the analogue signals will be switched off at that time.
More than 75 percent of the country's 400 million television sets receive terrestrial broadcasting now, according to the state TV administration.