The Associated Press
Monday, November 14, 2005; 1:07 AM

BEIJING -- Chinese state television will launch the country's first digital high-definition TV channel on New Year's Day, the government announced Monday.

The pay channel will broadcast 18 hours a day and carry events such as the 2006 soccer World Cup in Berlin, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

High-definition images offer viewers clearer, more vivid images than conventional TV. Digital format allows for the transmission of greater volume of data and combines audio and visual content, rather than dividing the two, as in analog format.

The Chinese government says it plans to begin shifting all of its television broadcasting to digital in 2008 and cease analogue transmission entirely by 2015.

China Central Television has been testing the new digital high-definition channel since September in Hangzhou, a city southwest of Shanghai, Xinhua said.