Decision on digital TV standard before year end

The Philippine government sees completion of the country’s shift to digital television going beyond its previous 2015 deadline, as the regulator expects to take more time to decide on which standard to use according to news reports.
“At present, the target is still 2015. But this will most likely be changed as we are already pressed for time,” Gamaliel A Cordoba, commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), said in a telephone interview with Business World.
Mr Cordoba said that while an NTC technical working group had recently recommended the adoption of the Japanese standard over the European alternative, the commission still had to review this and come up with its own decision to recommend to the government.
“We will definitely… (arrive at a decision) before the year ends,” Mr Cordoba said.
According to a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, broadcast giant GMA Network Inc has urged the government to adopt the European standard while the Association of Broadcasters of the Philippines and ABS-CBN Corp have voiced preference for the Japanese standard, citing set top box cost concerns.
The argument has less and less credibility as more and more countries adopt DVB-T and the more efficient DVB-T2 system helping to continually reduce the cost of STB’s as a result of competition and the economies of scale.
DVB-T and DVB-T2 have been adopted by 138 countries and are in use in 69.
The latest more efficient DVB-T2 standard has already been adopted by 23 countries and it is deployed and operating in 5 more. Nine more countries have DVB-T2 trials underway.
Original source: Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union
Item added: 5th September 2011