South America up for grabs in global game of HDTV Risk

TWO THOUSAND and six ended with Brazil selecting the Japanese ISDB HDTV format, and Argentina still weighing the options, as formidable lobby groups continue to do battle for territory and eyeballs in a global game of HDTV Risk.

If you look at the HDTV adoption map, and compare it with an older, cached copy over here, you will see that DVB has been making lots of progress lately. Sadly, that is reflected in the arrogance on the DVB camp, whose message in every instance seems to be: "We're the leaders, follow us, resistance is futile".

A Global game of Risk. DVB: Resistance is futile

When I attended the Caper 2006 exhibition made by and for the broadcast industry in Buenos Aires, the three battling groups unleashed their Powerpoint presentation inventories and waged a formidable brainwashing campaign, trying to convince the viewers not only about the merits of their format, but also about the disadvantages of the two others. One purely-technical presentation was the one by the Japanese fellow presenting ISDB. His presentation was in English language and very formal, whereas the DVB camp and ATSC made the exercise more lively. The DVB camp brought not one but three Spanish speaking chaps from Madrid's Polytechnic University.

Japanese fellow presenting ISDB-T

DVB-H mobile TV kit from Siemens and Nokia

After watching the Americans and the Europeans trade jabs and low punches, at points and just as a spectator in a horse race, I just wished our country went with the same Japanese modded standard as Brazil, not only to get some regional geographical coherency in place, but also to lower the arrogance of the Nokia presenters and others in the DVB camp.

In the end it all comes down to a colossal amount of money in new equipment, which broadcast stations will have to purchase, and then us, the consumers, will have to foot the other half of the bill.

DVB camp likes to show population statistics without caring
if 50% can't afford to buy any HDTV tuner

In that sense, I applaud Brazil's decision to go with its own ISDB format modification, as the government put creation of local jobs first, and the Japanese agreed to make HDTV equipment locally, in new factories whose construction was part of the ISDB offer. The fact the Brazilian government was able to get the Japanese to commit to a US$2 billion investment to construct a local semiconductor factory to be financed by Panasonic, Toshiba, NEC and Sony is no small feat. This will allow for the TV sets and STBs to be built in the country.

Argentina enters 2007 "undecided" between all three

Back in 1998, the government choose the American ATSC HDTV standard without much debate. It was a time of "automatic alignment" with the Great Power of the North, and the person in charge of the Communications Secretariat was not known for his transparency. In fact as of right now, he's under a judicial investigation for fraud.

The current administration promised a decision "soon", and during the last few months, lobbying by the two main camps, ATSC and DVB - the Japanese seem resigned to a loss and are only hoping for a miracle - was so intense that at times it was bizarre.

University professors from Spain, promoting DVB

In the last few months, each lobbying group presented its 'standard' in a public demo/audience with the Argentine President, as it's the executive branch which has to make a decision, and Congress is not involved in the decision-making process.

So far, the government is keeping its cards close to its chest and is not saying anything, which was nice for the first part of 2006, but has grown a tiresome game by now. It only hurts consumers who still have to deal with "HDTV Ready" TVs being sold without tuners, precisely because no standard has been chosen yet. Set Top Boxes manufacturers will surely rejoice, no doubt about it.

The two main horses in the race
As of right now, the players can be judged by the money and influence of their backing companies, and if that's the measure, then the European DVB standard should be the ultimate winner. The Europeans, especially the Spaniards, have shown a great ability to convince, convert, or arm-twist the government administration to do things in their favour, whereas the Americans whine like billy-o, before packing their bags and going away, promising never to return. Only to return a few years down the line.

The different modulation techniques and bandwidth used
by each Euro country using DVB.
It's all really easy, trust them. :)

The ATSC American standard is promoted locally by head-end equipment manufacturers Harris Corp. and Dolby Labs, and TV/end-user electronics manufacturers LG, Samsung, Daewoo, Hitachi and JVC among others. Local media conglomerate Clarin, which owns not only one air TV station - Channel 13 in Buenos Aires - but also the largest cable television network after bouying Cablevision from the Hicks fund, is also backing and lobbying for the American standard.

One local magazine recently suggested that the CATV operators, leaded by Clarin, have "already made the decision to go with the American standard and equipment". That would put consumers in a scenario where Cable TV would use American standards and air TV would end up using the European DVB-T. It would be bizarre indeed if they manage to end up with such a hodpepodgely nightmare.

On the other end of the ringside, backing DVB are two local telephone incumbents, which have had formidable lobbying power since the phone system was privatised in the early '90s. Spain's Telefonica group owns the incumbent phone operator Telefonica, and also an air TV station, Channel 11. The other telco interested in getting into HDTV and IPTV is Telecom, owned in part by Italy's Telecom group, which is also - being European - in the DVB camp.

Finally, the round-up includes electronics manufacturers eager to sell their DVB kit: Siemens, interested in manufacturing DVB STBs in the country, DMT, Nokia - interested in selling mobile phones with mobile DVB capability - and Philips, which is interested in selling DVB HDTV sets, as well as the kitchen sink. European governments are also lobbying heavily, as does the US ambassador. The DVB camp is specially backed by the German ambassador in the country, Rolf Schumacher, who promised investments of at least $100M if the DVB standard is selected. According to the local media, ATSC backers LG among others offered the government the manufacture of HDTV LCD and Plasma screens locally with a factory employing 500 people.

IP and royalties at stake

DVB dubs itself as an "open technology, just like GSM" which offers its intellectual property to "anyone, in a non-discriminatory basis". To sweeten the offer even more to the eyes of the local regulatory authorities, the DVB group offered a "zero royalties" scheme whereas Argentine firms assembling or manufacturing DVB HDTV kit will pay no royalties for DVB-T equipment production for local consumption, and the royalties for equipment manufactured locally for export would have a E0.75 per TV receiver, or E0.50 per Set Top Box.

The Japanese are the only ones, locally backed by Sony, NEC and Sanyo, that didn't come up with a significant offer in terms of local production and jobs creation, as they have already bet on the large Brazilian market. In the event the country ends up going with ISDB, we'd likely have very little choice but to just import all the equipment manufactured in Brazil.

Conclusion: can't we all just get along?
What you will see in 2007 will be one of the biggest lobbying operations in recent decades, to convince every government in the region about the beauty of a given HDTV standard. If you look at the map at DVB.org, you will see that there's plenty of space still waiting to be coloured. A global game of Risk, after all. Too bad it's us, the worker bees, the ones who will foot the game's bill, instead of doing the sensible thing, which would have been for the whole Globe to agree on a unique HDTV digital standard. Thinking aloud, couldn't ISO-MPEG4 over WiMAX+TCPIP and RTSP do the trick?. Sheesh. Can't we all just get along?. µ

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