Brazilian broadcasters say that mobile television will drive further expansion in a saturated market, and claim that the country's digital standard does not require additional investment in infrastructure to enable viewing on portable devices.
Brazil is rolling out digital television using the ISDB-T standard, which is a modification of the Japanese digital protocol, and will turn off analogue broadcast in 2016. SA is controversially contemplating the Brazilian standard, despite a 2006 decision to adopt the better known European DVB-T standard.
Brazilian politicians and broadcasters say the modified standard currently in use in that country is technically superior to DVB-T. They claim it is more robust, and has the added benefit of offering portable or mobile TV without the need for additional infrastructure investments or spectrum.
However, a recent DVB presentation, in Namibia, argues that the Brazilians are wrong in their contention that additional investments would have to be made. The presentation, last month by DVB chairman Philip Laven, said terrestrial and mobile TV can co-exist on a single multiplex and does not require additional capital investment.
Growth imperative
About 97% of Brazil's population receive free-to-air television, and around 10% use paid-for services, such as satellite and cable. However, Brazilian broadcasters want to grow their audiences by offering television to people on the move. Commuters in Sao Paulo, one of the world's biggest cities, spend hours each day travelling.
TV Globo engineering manager Carlos Fini says the broadcaster has developed a new business model to cater for the introduction of digital television, which started broadcasting in 2007. Its growth plan includes using portable television to expand its audience base.
However, because mobile television is free, the cellular networks are not currently making any profit from the additional service. Fini says there are talks between cellular providers and broadcasters on how to offer interactive data services to viewers that would use the mobile networks.
“We need to think about a new business model to compete with new media,” he says.
Fini says there are about half-a-million portable devices in the market at the moment, and this figure is expected to double by year-end. He explains that the uptake is faster than other media such as Blu Ray devices. There are about 200 million people in Brazil.
Globo is a private free-to-air broadcaster that relies on advertising for revenue and broadcasts content globally, to all five continents. It also produces content for sale to subscription television channels.
Can't do
Mackenzie University professor Fujio Yamada explains that DVB-T does not offer enough quality to allow the simultaneous broadcast of high definition (HD) television, which is visibly superior to standard definition, and mobile television.
However, says Yamada, the university's tests showed that ISDB-T allows the simultaneous broadcast of HD and mobile television to portable devices such as cellphones or TV sets in taxis. He adds that DVB requires different configuration settings through DVB-H to allow broadcast to portable sets.
Ministry of Communications diplomat Flavio Lenz Cesar says the cost to upgrade SA's current DVB-T infrastructure to ISDB-T will be marginal. However, in order to use DVB for mobile transmission, the handheld - or DVB-H - standard would be needed, as would hundreds of repeaters to send the signal further across the country.
* Nicola Mawson is being hosted in Brazil courtesy of the Brazilian Embassy in SA.
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