S America battles over digital TV standards

THE BATTLE OVER digital TV standards in South America is still far from over, and unless governments in the region start agreeing on a common approach, they risk ending up with a fragmented market of epic proportions.

As we pointed out some time ago, the decision in most countries will not be a technical issue but political one, closely allied to the fluctuating relations between each government and the United States, Europe or Japan.

For instance, it would be very unlikely that the powers that be in Venezuela or Bolivia - who do not have the warmest of relations with the United States - would end up embracing standards peddled by their local American embassy.

Venezuela is more likely to look to the Japanese standard adopted by Brazil, given the country's move to enter the South American trade bloc Mercosur, and President Hugo Chavez's recent spat with Spain. On the other hand, Colombia's love affair with ATSC is hardly surprising given its cosy relations with the United States.

In this global game of Risk, lobbying groups from Japan, the European Union and the United States are fighting a fierce battle to persuade governments across the region to select their respective standards - a move which would secure them a multi-billion dollar business for decades.

Here is an overview of the current situation in countries across South America.

Brazil
Brazil was one of the first countries to decide, opting for the Japanese ISDB-T standard. The decision was made after first conducting field tests and consulting local technical experts, as well as looking at development issues. In adopting this standard, Brazil also won several concessions from the Japanese, such as a commitment to use Brazilian manufacturing facilities for all set-top-boxes as well as a promise to set up a semiconductor facility in the country.

Brazil's HDTV service is being launched today, with the government pledging to bring down the cost of set-top-boxes (digital tuners) from a current high of $613 to around $112 (£54).

Like in other countries, digital TV will co-exist with existing analogue VHF transmission. Each TV station has been assigned its own new UHF channel for digital broadcasts, and customers who wish to receive the new HD signal will have to buy a UHF antenna.

Analogue transmissions will be switched off on June 29, 2016. Consumers who want to access digital TV via their mobile phones will have to wait a little longer - phones with integrated ISDB tuners are due to appear on the market in the first half of 2008. Although today's launch was only in Sao Paulo, a national rollout is expected to reach Rio de Janeiro during the next semester. Today's launch will be free for both fixed and mobile receivers, and independent of pay-per-view and cable TV schemes.

The standard has been locally dubbed "SBTVD" - which stands for the Brazilian system of digital TV. However, the Japanese have agreed to incorporate the Brazilian changes and market the standard as "ISDB-T International".

Uruguay
Back in August, Uruguay caught everyone by surprise by announcing it would embrace the European DVB standard both for mobile and terrestrial digital TV transmission, that is: DVB-T and DVB-H.

In an interview in the October edition of Broadcaster magazine, Leon Lev, head of Uruguay's telecomms regulations body URSEC, vigorously defended the government's move to adopt a standard without consulting with other government's in the region, saying it was "timely, strategic, and puts Uruguay at the forefront of technology in the Americas".

However, Rafael Inchausti, president of the National Association of Uruguayan Broadcasters (ANDEBU) criticised the decision as "rushed". "We think the rush might be due to conversations or negotiations that the Uruguayan state might have had with international organisations that support this system or the governments that promote this standard," he said of DVB.

Argentina
Earlier this year, local expert Luis Valle was quoted as saying "the best choice for Argentina would be (the North American) ATSC for terrestrial TV broadcasts, and both (the European) DVB and (the Japanese) ISDB for mobiles". Talk about a standards mess! But the government had nothing to say about the matter.

Today, the decision is still up in the air, and even those in the DVB camp admit, albeit strictly off the record, that the Japanese ISDB-T standard has the technical edge due to its robust signal and free over-the-air broadcasts to both fixed subscribers and mobile phones via a single transmission.

However, although the ISDB-T presentation at Caper 2007, - Argentina's annual broadcast industry conference - was technically accurate and very informative, it was also boring and lacked multimedia glitz. To my mind, neither camp created an effective, exciting presentation of its standards, and resorted to reciting technical specifications, MHz bandwidth and compression codecs.

Chile
In Chile, government regulating agency Subtel enlisted universities, technical experts and members of the public to carry out field tests on all three of the competing standards. There, members of the public were given the chance to be part of the selection process using their homes as test sites.

As many experts have pointed out, the Japanese standard is robust, and to my mind, it would make a lot of political and economic to have the same standard applied throughout the region, especially if it is the one used by the biggest country - Brazil.

However, despite the technical advantages of ISDB-T, one cannot ignore the formidable lobbying power of Telefonica which is used to getting its own way when it comes to government regulation, not to mention the power of mobile phones operators who would rather have mobile TV as a "value added service" (DVB provides ways for DRM), rather than a free-for-all mobile TV which anyone can watch without paying the "mothership".

One thing appears certain - that the North American ATSC standard is set to lose out.

Four days ago, Chile's El Sur newspaper said that Santiago will make an official decision on its HDTV standard before Christmas. MP Raúl Súnico, who heads the Science and Technology commission at Chile's lower house of representatives, told the paper he favoured the European standard, describing it as "the most viable option for Chile" in terms of production costs.

However, some believe the government is still considering ISDB after the Telecomms under-secretary Pablo Bello returned from a trip to Japan to learn more about the Japanese standard, describing his visit as "very productive".

Meanwhile, Entel PCS has decided to put its WCDMA network to some use and avoid the HDTV standards brouhaha entirely by doing mobile TV transmissions via its 3.5G data network. Initially, the service will be limited to three signals: Channel 13, Zona Latina and Vía X, Transmedia reports.

Bolivia
Bolivia has bigger issues to worry about than high-definition and digital television, which will likely be of interest only to the wealthy elites in its richest provinces who can afford digital and HD receivers. Last week, the Sittel telecomms regulating body hosted its first public discussion about digital TV standards.

The government is reportedly about to publish a plan of action for choosing one of the competing standards, which puts Bolivia very late in the game and means it will most likely be one of the last to adopt a standard. µ