BEIJING -- The number of digital cable TV subscribers in China will rise by 66 percent to 20 million by the end of 2007, according to prediction by ST Microelectronics (ST), the world's leading producer of set top box.

"China's digital TV industry will see a boom in 2007," Christos Lagomichos, vice president and general manager of the home entertainment group at ST, said here Friday.

He attributed the surge to the government's plan to digitalize its TV industry.

Twenty-five Chinese cities have switched from analog cable TV to digital cable TV and the government plans to convert all cities in the eastern and central regions and most of those in the western area by 2010.

Created in 1987 with the merger of Italy's SGS Microelettronica and Thomson Semiconducteurs, of France, ST is one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers.