Business World: ASEAN affirms 2015 switch to digital broadcasts

A 2015 SWITCH to digital from analog broadcasting has been affirmed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in line with the bloc’s economic integration schedule.

Ministers who met last week in Kuala Lumpur "endorsed the ‘Guidelines for ASEAN Digital Switch-Over’ which will serve as a shared blueprint to aid all Member States in their transition towards digital broadcasting," the organization said in a statement.

The Philippines, which has yet to decide on which digital standard to adopt, will host a technical working group meeting in the next three months, a Malacañang official said.

The meeting, said Sec. Hermino B. Coloma, Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, will "flesh out a more comprehensive communication plan for the ASEAN Economic Community."

The communication plan, which will touch digital television broadcasting and social media, aims to establish a strategy for increasing public awareness on efforts to unify the culturally diverse region.

Locally, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is said to be planning a second quarter release of implementing rules and regulations (IRR) on the digital shift.

A final choice has not been made between Japan’s integrated services digital broadcast-terrestrial (ISDB-T) and Europe’s digital video broadcasting-terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2) standards. The NTC announced that it had picked ISDB-T but Malacañang subsequently ordered a review.

Mr. Coloma said, "The President [Benigno S. C. Aquino III] directed the NTC and the Information and Communications Technology Office under the DoST (Department of Science and Technology) to formulate a migration plan from analogue to digital regardless of what standard may be adopted".

"The member countries [of ASEAN] are free to adopt the standard that is in accordance to their requirements," Mr. Coloma claimed.

The ASEAN statement, however, noted that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had described DVB-T2 as a "more advanced technology ... and acknowledge[d] the benefits of migrating directly to DVB-T2".

"The ministers also noted that the ADB will be developing common specifications for DVB-T2 receivers to enjoy economies of scale," it said. – EJD, dated 04 March 2012, 10:49 PM

Source: Business World

Malaya: NTC targets release of DTT migration rules in second half

THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is set to issue by the second half of the year the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) governing the migration from analog to digital terrestrial television (DTT).

Gamaliel Cordoba, NTC commissioner, said the regulator would issue the IRR after it completes the migration plan and finalizes which standard is best suited for the country.

The NTC and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) are expected to complete the migration plan in early April.

The rules were supposed to have been issued in June last year, a year after the NTC released Memorandum Circular No. 02-06-2010 choosing Japan’s integrated services digital broadcast-terrestrial (ISDB-T) as the country’s sole standard for DTT.

But Malacañang ordered NTC to conduct another review of the European and Japanese standards to find out which of them is better technically and in terms of cost-effectiveness.

The NTC set up a technical working group composed of stakeholders in the television broadcast industry, including the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) to formulate the IRR for DTT.

Based on the technical working group’s quotation last year, the ISDB-T receiver ranges from $20.50 to $55 per unit, cheaper than the Europe’s digital video broadcasting-terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2), which costs $33.50 to $62.

More than the features of ISDB, the Philippines is seen to benefit from adopting the Japanese standard as Japan has promised to give financial and technical support to the country’s smooth transition to digital TV.

KBP, together with its major broadcast member-firms ABS-CBN Corp. and TV5, favor the Japanese standard because it operates using the affordable set-top boxes.

ABS-CBN and other KBP members Net 25, RPN, IBC 13, Channel 4 and SBN have all undertaken test broadcasts of ISDB-T.

ABS-CBN has soft-launched its digital TV services called DTV, which will help improve its signal and reception.

The network is estimated to spend P3 billion for migration to digital TV, of which it had spent P500 million for the transmitter, acquisitions and film rights.

GMA Network Inc., which is not a member of KBP, prefers Europe’s DVB-T2. The company said its equipment are digital ready so it can migrate any time the regulator gives its go-signal to start migration to digital.

GMA has allocated P600 million for digital TV.

Digital TV is a system of broadcasting and receiving digital sound and video signals that require a specially designed and more advanced TV set than the traditional analog box.

DTT allows a broadcast network to deliver multiple programs on a single channel using one transmitter, so consumers can watch the programs earlier aired at their own time.

The Philippines will be the first in Asia to adopt the Japanese standard for digital TV. Besides Japan, other countries that adopted ISDB-T were Brazil, Peru, Chile, Venzuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Paraguay.

The country plans to migrate from analog to digital TV by 2015. – by Myla Iglesias, dated 27 February 2012

Source: Malaya

Business World: Decision on digital TV standard seen by mid-2012

Our first news article for 2012 is simply talking that “history repeats itself”. Last year on the same month, we’ve gone into NTC’s decision on finalizing the country’s migration to digital terrestrial TV standard. And then the delay had happened.

Finally, the National Telecommunications Commission is now ready to concretize the details on the Philippines’ plan for the DTV migration. With the help of DOST, the agencies are furnishing every aspect of the migration plan. We therefore again expecting June of this year, hope it’ll work through. Read the article after the break.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) may arrive at a final decision on which digital television standard to use in the second half of this year, as it has yet to finish a migration plan needed before choosing a standard.

This, as the digital TV migration plan is expected to be completed within the first half of the year, Gamaliel A. Cordoba, NTC commissioner, told BusinessWorld in a phone interview on Friday.

“After finishing the digital TV migration plan, we can move on to choosing the standard. [We’re] hoping we can decide [on a standard] in the second half,” Mr. Cordoba said.

Last August, an NTC technical working group recommended before the agency the adoption of the Japanese Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard rather than the European Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) technology.

After the NTC decides on which digital TV standard to adopt and issues the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the technology, broadcasting firms can start rolling out the digital signals alongside analog signals.

This, however, will have to wait until the digital TV migration plan is finished.

“The Department of Science and Technology, assisted by by NTC, is formulating the migration plan from analog TV to digital,” Mr. Cordoba said.

“We hope [the migration plan] will be finished within the first half of the year,” he added.

Last November, the NTC decided to formulate a digital TV migration plan before deciding on which standard to use.

“Through the migration plan, we will be able to foresee issues that may come up in the implementation of the country’s shift to digital TV,” Mr. Cordoba said.

The plan will also include a timetable for the implementation of the shift to digital TV and a listing on how much the government, broadcasting firms, and the public are projected to spend, Mr. Cordoba said.

Government will be spending for the spectrum auction of TV signals, the broadcasting firms will spend for the needed infrastructure in rolling out digital TV signals, and the public will need to purchase set-top boxes or new TV sets, Mr. Cordoba previously said.

In 2010, the country aimed to complete the shift to digital TV by 2015, but the NTC in August last year said it may move the target to a later date as the implementation has been long delayed.

In June 2010, NTC, following unanimous industry support, chose Japan’s standard as the country’s digital TV platform over Europe’s DVB technology.

However, the House Committee on Information and Communication Technology, in March 2011, encouraged a review of which standard to adopt, since the upgraded European standard (DVB-2) was not assessed in last year’s review.

The NTC, then, conducted another review and in August 2011, a technical working group of the agency recommended the adoption of the Japan ISDB-T standard.

Aside from Japan, the ISDB-T has been widely adopted in South America.

Meanwhile, the DVB-2 technology has been adopted in Europe, states in South Africa, India, Singapore, and Sri Lanka among others. On the other hand, there are 119 countries that have adopted the first generation European standard, according to the DVB Project Web site. – Kathleen A. Martin, dated 23 January 2012, 12:05 AM

Source: Business World