National Radio and Television Administration: A universal remote control for watching TV will be made possible

On September 17, the State Council Information Office held a series of press conferences on the theme of “Starting Strong in the 15th FiveYear Plan.” The National Radio and Television Administration said that over the past three years, the radio and television system has worked with multiple departments to continuously promote governance of excessive “bundled” charges and complicated TV operations, and notable results have been achieved. The National Radio and Television Administration introduced that after entering the 15th FiveYear Plan period, the focus of work will further shift from “dual governance” to the “dual improvement” of service and experience. This includes promoting new terminals such as integrated TVs to improve the convenience of TV use. Last year, relevant departments jointly deployed more than 10 million plugin mini settop boxes. This year, the National Radio and Television Administration, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, formulated an integrated TV technical standard, attempting to build settop box functions into TVs in software form, so that one TV can receive live broadcasting, ondemand and other services, and users can also use a single universal remote control to perform operations such as turning the TV on and off and switching channels. The National Radio and Television Administration said that, considering that some older TVs cannot be upgraded, the promotion will be carried out in phases. As TVs are replaced with new models, the coverage of integrated TVs is expected to further expand.