Triple Play 三网融合

Triple Play 三网融合

A triple play in baseball is rare and exciting. For China’s media and telecoms industries the term is also exciting, but they hope if can become a bit more common. This term refers to the integration of communications networks, encompassing telephone, Internet, and TV and radio. Under a government scheme, qualified broadcasting enterprises will be allowed to operate telecoms, Internet and value-added services, and telecoms operators will be able to produce and air TV or radio programs. This would give consumers easier accesses to more diversified media and telecom services. In the United States, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 removed regulatory barriers and cleared the way for “triple play” networks. But in China, the State Council finally issued a plan to promote the scheme in 2010 after it had gone through almost 20 revisions. A full integration is expected by 2015. However, the plan has moved slowly due to institutional barriers.