China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) has recently released industry standards for broadcast television and online audio-visual services, according to domestic media reports on Monday. The notice, titled "Technical Requirements for Cable Television Services," mandates that cable TV terminals should offer two "boot mode" options: one to boot into full-screen live broadcast and the other to boot into an interactive homepage showcasing live channels. The default system setting is specified to be booting into full-screen live broadcast.
According to the notice, set-top boxes should not exceed a 35-second boot time. Cable TV operators are required to ensure that interfaces for live, time-shifting, replay, on-demand content, or any other cable TV services are simple, user-friendly, offer convenient and swift operation, and maintain high-quality program transmission.
The notice also establishes guidelines for the response time of program playback on internet TV terminals with a bandwidth of not less than 100Mbps. It stipulates that the response time, from clicking on a program to the appearance of the first frame, ideally should be less than two seconds and not exceed 3.5 seconds. The response time for operations such as program pause, play, fast forward, and rewind should be less than two seconds and not exceed 3.5 seconds. Additionally, the time for exiting program playback and returning to the pre-playback page should be less than one second.
