Philippines chooses DVB-T

21 November 2006

The DVB Project has welcomed the recent publication by the Philippines’ National Telecommunications Commission of a draft set of Rules and Regulations for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Broadcast Service mandating the use of DVB-T as the sole digital terrestrial television broadcasting standard for the Philippines. Section 2.1 of the draft Memorandum Circular states: “The Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard shall be the sole standard in the delivery of DTT services in the country.”

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is the Philippines’ telecommunications and broadcasting regulator, and the draft Memorandum Circular, containing the choice of DVB-T and several provisions for the launch of DVB-T services in the Philippines, comes after deliberations in a cross industry grouping entitled the Technical Working Group on Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting. The group examined the alternatives such as ATSC and ISDB and recommended DVB-T because it offered “advantages in terms of terrestrial transmission/networking, interoperability with other technology applications, proven capability for mobile terrestrial reception, its ability to satisfactorily address the multipath/ghosting problem, and its capability to support single frequency networks.”

Mr. Armand C. Ursal, President of SBETP (Society of Broadcast Television Engineers of the Philippines), Vice-Chairman of the Technical Working Group on Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting, and Director of the Association of Broadcasters in the Philippines (KBP) stated: “Our deliberations took into account many elements, and apart from the technical advantages of DVB-T, the current deployment of DTT systems show that DVB-T is emerging as the global preference, with far more countries having adopted, or in the process of adopting the DVB platform, thus ensuring equipment availability and enhancing affordability. Indeed, comments submitted by various sections to the NTC have made the same recommendation.”

Peter MacAvock, Executive Director of the DVB Project, said: “The Philippines recommendation for DVB-T represents an important milestone for DTT. With the importance of end-user equipment cost paramount, the endorsement of DVB-T by a large 6MHz country like the Philippines paves the way for other 6MHz countries to choose DVB-T. We will work with the industry in the Philippines to smooth the rollout of DTT services there and hope that the decision influences countries such as Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina making their DTT standard choices shortly.”

The relevant documents can be accessed using the links below.
The DVB Press Release related to this story can be downloaded here. Versions in Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese are also available.