Digital Terrestrial Migration in the Philippines Part 1 - Melvin Acosta

prepared Melvin C. Acosta

Philippine Migration to DTT Milestones

¨ 1999 : -ATSC demo of DTV through SBETP. ¨ 2003 : -ABSCBN thru its Eng’g R&D forms informal study

group for digital TV technology ¨ 2005 : -Technical Working Group 1 (TWG 1) formed by

NTC to study and recommend DTV standards (DVB-T and ATSC) for Philippine adoption.

¨ 2006 : - Recommendation submitted to NTC to adopt DVB-T and subsequent public hearing

¨ 2007 : - Test broadcast begins for performance of DVB-T¨ 2008 : - TWG2 formed by NTC to include ISDB-T in the

study. Also, trial conducted locally for performance of ISDB-T

MCAcostaPresentation

Philippine Migration to DTV Milestones q 2008 - Recommendation submitted to NTC where

majority of the TV broadcasters choose DVB-T , while others prefer ISDB-T.

¨ March 2009 – The Japanese conducts comprehensive presentation of ISDB-T with broadcast demo.

¨ June 2009 – EU, thru the auspices of the French Embassy, makes comprehensive presentation on DVB-T and worldwide trends and updates

¨ Jan 2010 – ABSCBN presents to KBP result of its self-initiated comparative test between DVB-T and ISDBT.

¨ April 2010 – KBP endorses to NTC adoption of ISDB-T

MCAcostaPresentation

Philippine Migration to DTV Milestones ¨ June 2010 – NTC conducts public hearing and signs

Memo Circular adopting ISDB-T as the DTT standard for the Philippines

¨ February 2011 – NTC forms the TWG for crafting the Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR)

MCAcostaPresentationTWG 1 (Y2005) TWG 3 (Y2011)

Main Issues in the Philippines

FOR REGULATORSž Official adoption of DTT standardž Frequency band allocation during transition

period. Re-allocation of other frequency band.ž Legal framework due to increase in program

capacity for a single TV channel.

MCAcostaPresentation

Main Issues in the PhilippinesFOR INDUSTRY PLAYERSž Capital outlay and technical planning (DTT is

capital intensive)ž Business model considering the ROI for huge

investment in equipment — Value-added offerings such as more channels,

very clear reception even in mobile, repurposed programming for different platforms such as handheld

— Conditional access for premium channelsž Affordable set top boxes for consumer

MCAcostaPresentation

Main Issues in the PhilippinesFOR CONSUMERS— Affordable set top box for C, D, E market— Compelling reason to shift from analog to digital

for free TV terrestrial reception— Value added services worth spending such as

handheld TV or pay-per-view

MCAcostaPresentation

Main Issues in the PhilippinesFOR CONSUMERS— Affordable set top box for C, D, E market— Compelling reason to shift from analog to digital

for free TV terrestrial reception— Value added services worth spending such as

handheld TV or pay-per-view

MCAcostaPresentation

Engineering Practice for DTTFROM ANALOG TO DIGITALž Network planning will require knowledge of SFN

technology and becomes more complicated. ž Transmitter operation will now require new

parameters to be measured hence additional training on new instruments

ž Maintenance will always be done on board and module levels and systems must always be redundant so as to be very reliable.

LSMCAcostaPresentation

Thank you for your Attention