Strengthening Digital Broadcasting Experience ITU-AIDB–ABU Regional Workshop – Hanoi – 23-24 May 2011 1 ©Strategy & Technology, 2011 DTT Success Stories.

Strengthening Digital Broadcasting Experience

ITU-AIDB–ABU Regional Workshop – Hanoi – 23-24 May 2011 1©Strategy & Technology, 2011

DTT Success StoriesUK, Hong Kong and New Zealand

Colin Prior

Director of International SalesStrategy & Technology



Agenda Introduction to S&T What makes a successful DTT market? Successful markets:

Freeview HD UK Hong Kong Freeview│HD New Zealand

Key ingredients for success Summary



S&T Overview Independent company

Offices in London & Bristol (UK), Denver (USA), Hong Kong (SAR) Worked exclusively in digital TV since 1996 On council of UK DTG, leading MHEG-5 specification activity;

previously on DVB Steering Board Products provide a complete interactive TV solution:

RedkeyTM MHEG-5 engines to receiver manufacturers MHEG-5 applications to broadcasters and operators Interactive playout equipment (Object Carousels) Customers include Sky, Arqiva (UK), Freeview NZ, Kordia,

Canwest, TVNZ (NZ), TVB (HK), Digicable (India), ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine, Ten, Win, Broadcast Australia, Prime, Southern Cross (Australia), RAI (Italy), Mediacorp (Singapore), RTM (Malaysia), Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Weather Channel, Videotron, Cisco, Rogers, NBC, Motorola (USA)

Also provide consulting services to broadcasters operators and regulators



What makes a DTT market successful? Viewer acceptance and adoption, driving receiver

sales and enabling a timetable for analogue switch-off

DTT Brand recognition by viewers Receiver availability with a competitive market of

conformant product providing consumers with choice

Broadcaster success with innovative and compelling content – both video and interactive



Viewer perceived benefits of Digital TV Better picture quality Widescreen (16:9) Improved audio quality including Dolby 5.1 surround High Definition Wider choice of channels Interactive services and programme guide Closed captions / audio description Digital video recorders (time-shift)



UK - Freeview DTT launched in UK in 1998 as a PayTV platform “OnDigital”,

later “ITVDigital” using MHEG-2 compression with MHEG-5 middleware and Nagra CAS.

ITVDigital failed as a commercial venture in 2002, primarily due to high content costs and small number of subscribers.

A consortium lead by the BBC, Sky and Crown Castle (now Arqiva) took over the platform and renamed it ‘Freeview’.

The Freeview name is important as previously consumers had the perception that Digital TV = Pay TV.

Freeview describes exactly what the service is: Free to View television with no subscription fees

Now over 55m receivers sold and in 90% of UK households



Freeview Channels



Freeview fundamentals Freeview acts as an umbrella organisation to market,

coordinate and promote the Freeview brand and concept. It does not operate any channels or services.

Multiplexes and transmission network are operated by an independent company, Arqiva (not the broadcasters) to allow the transmission network to be optimised in terms of coverage and bandwidth utilisation.

All technical specifications (transmission and receivers) are developed and maintained by the Digital Television Group (DTG), an industry owned group that brings all stakeholders in the complete supply chain together. (Broadcasters, Operators, Manufacturers, Regulators and Retailers)

DTG Testing produces conformance tests and carries out receiver conformance testing for manufacturers

Digital UK provides the promotion and consumer support for Digital Switchover



Freeview HD March 2009: DTG publish D-Book 6 October 2009: Freeview HD conformance test suite December 2009: Technical launch of Freeview HD:

3 HD channels go live in London and Manchester

March 2010: Consumer launch of Freeview HD products in retail stores

Digital switchover progressing region-by-region offering 4 HD services on one DVB-T2 multiplex (with 5 existing DVB-T multiplexes) – nationwide completion in 2012.



>1.5m receiver sales to end Q1 2011

>150 DVB-T2 / MHEG-5 receiver models in the UK market including:



BBC iPlayer – Hybrid “Catch-up TV” on Freeview HD



Hong Kong

The two Free-to-Air broadcasters in Hong Kong, TVB and ATV jointly launched DTT in January 2008.

Additional licenses will be awarded in June 2011 for more services

Platform supports both SD and HD MPEG-2/4 H.264 AVC services using the DMB-T transmission standard (China)

Receiver conformance testing by DTV Labs in Hong Kong with conformance mark

Receiver sales now exceed 1.5m and DTT penetration is >60% of Hong Kong households



Information / Stock Market (TVB Hong Kong)



Freeview New Zealand Freeview is a consortium of Free-to-Air broadcasters in

New Zealand Launched Freeview|HD on DVB-T in early 2008

supporting both SD and HD MPEG-4 H.264 AVC services Also operate a DVB-S MPEG-2 SD Freeview platform to

provide coverage to rural areas HD services are not simulcast in SD. If an SD display is

used then the receiver down-converts from HD to SD. Receiver conformance testing by DTG Testing UK and

DTV Labs in Hong Kong Over 550,000 receivers sold with Freeview in approx 30%

of NZ households



Freeview New Zealand Channels



Freeview NZ MHEG Platform EPG



Key ingredients for success Clear plan and objectives All stakeholders work together Clear technical specifications for receivers and

broadcast including middleware Receiver conformance and marking Retail supply chain involvement And of course, compelling content!



Stakeholder Organisation It is essential to bring together all the stakeholders

in the digital TV market: Broadcasters Regulator / Government Receiver manufacturers Equipment suppliers Retailers

Enable good communications and consistent message



Why MHEG-5 Middleware? MHEG-5 has been selected for theses DTT markets

because it can be built into all receiver devices in a market at a very small incremental cost with:

Low receiver technology cost due to small footprint No known IPR (= no license fees) Competitive market in technology supply with a complete

international supply chain already in place Effective conformance test regime in place

MHEG middleware is now integrated into most integrated digital TVs which now dominate retail sales in Europe and Asia-Pacific



Receiver Conformance Testing An independent conformance test scheme is strongly

recommended for digital TV markets Verify the receiver implementation with the DTG Testing

conformance test suite or equivalent In horizontal markets involve the retailers in this process. (The

customers will complain to them!) Have some form of branding to show consumers the product conforms to specifications:



Summary and Conclusions DTT is successful in many markets in Europe and Asia. Common factors in their success include:

Clear objectives agreed by all stakeholders Detailed technical specifications for receivers and transmission

including middleware Receiver conformance testing scheme to ensure interoperability Retail supply chain involved in process

Adopting a proven specification based on established markets such as UK (DVB-T2 and MHEG-5) reduces risk and enables a rapid market launch as receiver products are already developed and readily available

DVB-T2 should now be specified for all new DTT platforms – receiver cost differences will soon be insignificant



Thank you!

Web sites: www.s-and-t.com

Colin PriorDirector of International [email protected]

Strengthening Digital Broadcasting Experience ITU-AIDB–ABU Regional Workshop – Hanoi – 23-24 May 2011 1 ©Strategy & Technology, 2011 DTT Success Stories.

Documents

uk freeview dtt

interactive slide

uk households slide

arqiva uk

dtt success stories

freeview nz

success summary slide

successful dtt market