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RSSJiji Press English News Service
Tokyo, June 5 (Jiji Press)--Six Japanese companies, including Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. , said Monday they have agreed to set up a joint company to promote the distribution of broadband contents to digital television sets.
The other firms are Sharp Corp. , Toshiba Corp. , Hitachi Ltd. and Sony Communication Network Corp., a Sony subsidiary.
The agreement came after four months of study at a working group of the companies.
The joint company, to be set up on July 7, will be capitalized at one billion yen. Matsushita and the Sony group will each provide 35 pct of the capital, while Sharp, Toshiba and Hitachi will each put up 10 pct.
The planned company will operate a portal site to provide broadband contents, such as on-demand video, to digital TV sets.
Land-based digital TV broadcasting started in limited areas in 2003 and is scheduled to become available nationwide by the end of 2006. As analog broadcasting is set to be abolished in 2011, the replacement of analog TV sets with digital TVs is expected to accelerate in the coming years.END
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