The Latest on IPTV in China (SIGM 2Q06 Conf Call Quotes)

Shanda Interactive (ticker: SNDA) is banking on the success of IPTV. And while some investors are skeptical about its prospects the rollout of IPTV in China continues. Sigma Designs (ticker: SIGM) specializes in media processors for IPTV set-top boxes. The company's VP of Strategic Marketing Ken Lowe had the following to say about IPTV during management's Q2 2006 earnings results conference call:

Sigma VP Ken Lowe

....For the China telco market, we're shipping to UTStarcom (ticker: UTSI), who is in turn shipping to China Telecom (ticker: CHA) and China Netcom (ticker: CN), two of the largest network providers in the world. This business currently is ramping and is expected to account for a substantial quantity of units during 2006.

Roth Capital Partners Analyst Jay Srivasta

....What is the general sense on IPTV roll-out in China? Is it going to be in the tens of thousands or millions? Obviously, both of those customers there are -- have a huge DSL subscriber base.

Sigma VP Ken Lowe

....Well, the China market (technical difficulty) a tumultuous area, and it's subject to a lot of government influence, etcetera, whereas the overall potential of the market over the next several years is enormous, in the many millions. The difficulty there is the short-term market develops on a province-by-province basis. And then they go through governmental issues every time they break into a new region. So we basically are watching the business on a quarter-by-quarter basis and we're judging it as it comes. We're looking at the kind of statements UTStarcom has made. They're much closer to the situation. And we are anticipating some substantial growth next year.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

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