The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) is planning to take on the country’s black market for satellite TV, which has been overlooked and left unregulated for years.    

The administration is planning to distribute 10,000 satellite TV receivers with encryption chips to local residents for free in the northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from July 20, as a trial to develop encrypted satellite TV services, according to the 21st Century Business Herald Thursday.

“The move can be viewed as a step to enable SARFT to stop offering unencrypted satellite TV in future,” Wu Chunyong, an expert in China’s telecom, cable and Internet sectors, told the Global Times Thursday.

“By the end of last year, approximately 60 million illegal satellite TV dishes were found to be working,” said Wu, also editor-in-chief of Internet company DWRH.net. Wu was asked by SARFT to conduct research into the country’s black market for satellite TV.   

In 2008, China launched a satellite service called China Star No. 9, aiming to provide unencrypted TV for rural areas where cable TV was not available and where installing cables would have cost too much. The service offers up to 300 TV channels in high definition.

Some people smelled a business opportunity and began to produce satellite receivers to enable people to receive the service in urban areas as well. One receiver system usually costs 200-300 yuan ($30.92-46.38) according to Wu.

SARFT has been aware of this for some time, but cracking down on illegal satellite companies is difficult, so instead it began to upgrade its services, requiring illegal satellite TV service users to make alterations to their receivers.

As a result, some have simply stopped using their dishes due to the aggravation of weekly upgrades. But many have persisted.

“Offering encrypted receivers to rural residents can make sure people in need can still enjoy TV services,” said Wu, adding that the move could also provide a business opportunity for local authorities.