Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Broadcasting – Progress in the Americas

In the Americas, terrestrial television broadcasting is one of the most ubiquitous and important mass communications media for delivering news, information, cultural programs, and entertainment free of charge. With a population of more than 800 million, there are currently over 400 million television sets in the Americas, and this number continues to grow. Broadcasts reach more than 90% of households in most countries.

Television is a vital part of the region’s communications and information infrastructure, and a fundamental transformation is now under way, as the region’s national television broadcasting systems are upgraded from analog to digital technology. The transition to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting is a revolutionary change that will dramatically affect the future of free over-the-air television in the Americas. DTT technology allows each broadcaster to provide a huge wireless information pipeline into every home, delivering up to 20 million bits per second through each 6 MHz broadcast television channel. This capability not only permits the transmission of dramatically sharper images and CD-quality surround sound but also supports a much greater quantity and diversity of TV programs. And it makes possible an entire new array of information services, including interactive capabilities that will help all citizens of the Americas to take fuller advantage of the benefits of the information age, in a more uniform way.

With digital transmission, image and sound quality are improved through significantly enhanced picture and audio presentation capabilities and the elimination of snow, noise and ghost images. Broadcasters can provide one or sometimes two simultaneous programs of high-definition television (HDTV), delivering much sharper, clearer images with six times as much picture information as today’s analog broadcasts. Or, they can offer four to six or even more simultaneous programs of standard-definition television (SDTV) over their single 6 MHz channel. In addition, high-quality audio can be provided with advanced multi-channel sound technology.

In addition to these innovative video and audio services, broadcasters can offer a limitless variety of new information services that can offer new business opportunities, while also providing education, health care and other applications that address pressing social needs. Broadcasters will be able to experiment with a variety of innovative offerings and service packages, improving their ability to respond to the marketplace, while continuing to provide free program services and to meet their public-interest obligations. For example, broadcasters can use DTT to deliver tremendous amounts of Internet content to people who might never own a personal computer. Such applications can be delivered to new digital television sets, or to inexpensive converter boxes that allow the digital content to be displayed on existing analog TVs. In this manner, DTT represents an immediate and effective means of promoting social inclusion throughout the region and bridging the “digital divide,” so that all socio-economic segments of society can reap the benefits of this fruitful new technology.

Thus, the conversion to digital television technology represents a quantum improvement in the technical quality of television, plus a quantum improvement in the quantity of television programming available, plus a revolutionary improvement in the information infrastructure of the nations that implement the technology. In addition, because DTT makes much more efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum than analog TV broadcasting, at the end of the transition governments will be able to recapture and reallocate significant amounts of spectrum that can support additional innovative wireless services that will themselves address important societal needs and be engines of economic growth for decades to come.

Implementation Progress

Over the past 19 years, a great amount of effort has been expended throughout the Americas by thousands of engineers, business people and government policy makers toward the successful development and deployment of DTT technology.

DTT broadcasting was first developed in North America, and first implemented in the U.S., where more than 1,500 digital TV stations are on the air in 211 cities, reaching virtually 100% of television households, using the ATSC Standard. HDTV is the central DTT application, but SDTV multicasting and information services are also provided, often in combination with HDTV. Approximately 800 different consumer products are available, most of them HDTV. More than 30 million digital television consumer products have been sold, worth over $50 billion, and the prices of HDTVs continue to fall, rapidly converging with the prices of traditional analog color TVs.

This trend will continue over the next few years as the phase-in of a government regulation is completed. Under this regulation, all television receivers sold in the U.S. must have ATSC tuning and decoding capability by March 2007. As a result, by 2007 an estimated 34 million ATSC receivers per year will be sold in the U.S. alone, with cumulative sales reaching 152 million by 2009. Such massive sales volumes ensure the lowest prices possible for ATSC DTT receivers, something that is critically important in making DTT affordable for all socio-economic groups within the hemisphere.

The U.S. Congress has now established February 2009 as a firm date for the cessation of analog television broadcasts, allowing the recapturing and reuse of extremely valuable nationwide spectrum. Some of this recovered spectrum will be used for new services that promote public safety and national security, and the remainder will be auctioned, bringing tens of billions of dollars to the national treasury, while enabling new wireless services that will be engines of economic growth for decades to come. To support the end of analog television transmissions, inexpensive digital-to-analog set-top converter boxes have been developed to permit consumers to view DTT signals on their existing analog TV sets. Prototype converters have already been demonstrated, which are expected to cost approximately US$50 by 2008. Twenty to forty million of these converters will be sold to support the final transition to DTT broadcasting in the U.S. This is important for all countries in the region, because such huge volumes ensure the availability of inexpensive converters that can be used with existing analog TVs to bring the benefits of DTT broadcasting to all socio-economic groups, including people who may never own personal computers.

Canada has also adopted the ATSC Standard and is in the process of implementing DTT broadcasting. HDTV broadcasts are on the air in the largest cities, and Canadian consumers are purchasing HDTV products at a rate that is even faster than in the U.S.

Mexico adopted the ATSC Standard in July 2004 and began DTT broadcasts at the beginning of this year. Mexico already has 34 DTV stations on the air or about to be on the air in nine cities, reaching 35% of the nation’s population in just six months. Under Mexico’s DTT policy, digital stations must be on the air in all of Mexico’s largest cities and the U.S. border region no later than the end of this year. Mexican broadcasters have also demonstrated interactive information services using the ATSC family of standards.

Argentina adopted the ATSC Standard in 1998 and has been conducting experimental broadcasts since 1999, including ATSC HDTV broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup games during the last few weeks in Buenos Aires. Argentina has been reviewing its DTT policies and options and is expected to announce its plans and decisions in the near future.

ATSC broadcasts also began this month in Guatemala – the first HDTV broadcasts in Central America – starting with HDTV broadcasts of the World Cup games.

Brazil has been examining its options for DTT broadcasting for several years, and is expected to define a regulatory and technical framework for DTT implementation within a matter of days.

Many other countries in the region, including Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic are also evaluating plans and policies for the introduction of DTT broadcasting. Several of these countries are expected to adopt a DTT standard and associated policies by the end of 2006.

CITEL’s DTT Broadcasting Implementation Guide

CITEL itself has been actively involved since before 2001 to assist the OAS member states in capturing the benefits of this fruitful technology. In October 2003, CITEL’s PCC.II adopted a resolution regarding DTT, which resolved:

1. To encourage Member States to adopt and implement a common Terrestrial Digital Television broadcasting standard. 2. To work together to encourage the successful transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television technology as rapidly as possible, recognizing the economic and social conditions in individual countries. 3. To continue to assist Member States in expediting the implementation of a common hemispheric standard for Terrestrial Digital Television broadcasting.

While this resolution recognized the value of using a common DTT standard throughout the hemisphere and the importance of implementing DTT as rapidly as possible, it did not mandate adoption of any specific standard.

Based on this and subsequent resolutions, CITEL PCC.II has developed a DTT Broadcasting Implementation Guide, which is intended to allow the OAS member states to learn from each other’s experiences in implementing DTT broadcasting. In assembling these experiences, it is explicitly recognized that different approaches and different policies may well be appropriate for different nations. Nevertheless, the variety of experiences that are already available should be very valuable to those nations that are just now beginning to plan for their transitions to DTT.

Accordingly, the CITEL DTT Guide focuses first on the national goals that each country might want to consider for its transition to DTT, reviewing the approaches taken by those countries that have addressed these issues to date. The Guide then focuses on the actual policies that each country has adopted, and the reasons why they were adopted. The Guide next focuses on the important topic of spectrum planning for DTT broadcasting, including the principles that various countries have followed in developing their own spectrum plans and policies. Next, the Guide summarizes the national experiences of those countries that have implemented DTT, or are poised to implement DTT, or who have conducted extensive studies of their DTT options. The final section highlights examples of successful DTT services and applications, along with cost-effective approaches for implementing the technology.

An appendix to the Guide provides an extensive collection of ATSC standards, recommended practices and implementation guidelines to support DTT broadcasting. This collection of electronic documents is intended to collect in one place all of the necessary technical information and supporting documentation for implementing DTT using the ATSC family of standards. In the future, if an OAS member country adopts a different DTT standard, technical and operational information for that standard will also be included as an appendix.

This Guide is intended to be a living document, updated from time to time to include additional information and especially the experiences of other OAS member states as they embark upon the introduction of DTT broadcasting. In this manner it is hoped that the Guide provides a useful tool to the countries of the region in their efforts to bring the tremendous benefits of DTT broadcasting to their people.

Adapted from the CITEL DTT Implementation Guide by

Robert Graves
Chairman
ATSC Forum