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China's first direct-to-home broadcasting satellite has failed less than 10 days after its launch, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

SinoSat-2, the first domestically made satellite that was to beam digital signals directly to some 100 million households, suffered a serious power failure and appeared beyond repair, said a Ms Jia, an engineer at Sino Satellite Communication, the company that operates it.

"It went into orbit successfully but the solar power panel failed shortly afterwards, leaving the satellite without power," Ms Jia said. She declined to give her full name.

"SinoSat-2 can no longer send any signals; it's gone out of operation," another engineer at the company said.

The central government has so far blocked news of the satellite's failure in the mainland media.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, the satellite failure could cost 2 billion yuan. The human rights group said an "abnormality" in operation was detected on November 7, nine days after the satellite was sent into orbit on a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province .

A taskforce sent by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which developed and manufactured SinoSat-2, had been trying to fix the problem, but to no avail, Ms Jia said.

SinoSat-2, launched last month with much fanfare, was touted as "a milestone in China's communications and broadcast industry" for the revolutionary changes it was to bring to millions of Chinese families - especially in rural areas - unable to access cable networks.

The country's cable television network covers only about 28 per cent of mainland homes, or 110 million households, mostly in the urban areas.

The expanded reach to rural areas would also have boosted the country's move to digital television, which allows an increased number of channels to be sent via cable or satellite, and was expected to attract more advertisers.

An estimated 100 million homes were expected to obtain satellite dishes in the next five years, forming a potential market for satellite services worth 100 billion yuan.

With its 22 transponders, SinoSat-2 was originally expected to deliver television and radio programmes, internet connections and broadband multimedia systems on the mainland and in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for 15 years.

It would have carried 47 national television and radio channels on about 30 per cent of its capacity. The rest would have been used to carry entertainment and cultural channels.

The satellite's launch had been postponed several times because of a 1993 law banning mainlanders from installing satellite antennae that receive television signals. That law is being revised.