SPECIAL ISSUE
Rome, 12-14 March ‘12
2008-2012: Analysis of the National Digital Tv Switch-Off
Italian DVB-T on a slippery slope Too few frequencies to assure transition for everyone makes for a hard-fought endgame in the digital TV switch-off while the telco lobby is calling for even more capacity, ideally without having to pay for it contest’ approach, consolidating the LCN system, granting permanent licenses and clarifying procedures for local TV stations.
Unsolved problems According to the Studio Frasi research institute, with the full establishment of a digital platform, digital terrestrial in Italy grew by 11 percentage points. In just three years, Italy completely transferred its TV broadcasting from analogue to digital. At the end of 2008, digital TV accounted for only 4.9% of viewing time; by the end of 2011, the figure had risen to 70%. The digital TV take-off came in 2009, while 2010 saw it overtake analogue. Last year was one of consolidation, with every region, even those not yet at 100%, significantly increasing the use of DTT. The boom has been a nationwide one, though the most digital region, from a TV point of view, is Veneto, with 88.8%, followed by Friuli (87.5%) and Umbria (86.4%). The ministry, aided by the Ugo Bordoni Foundation, launched a digital switchover help scheme for viewers, providing practical information, organizing events around Italy, offering incentives for the purchase of decoders and setting up a free helpline. As of April 2012, as long as they have paid their TV license fee, over-65s with an annual income of
€10,000 or less can get €50 from the government to help them buy an interactive decoder. At the same time, there is a full schedule of TV and radio commercials, street posters, newspaper announcements, text messages and leaflets handed out in shopping centres and other public areas. Very much on the agenda is also the ‘beauty contest’ for new frequencies, an issue closely linked to the telcos’ LTE projects
LTE: can you sleep at night? As the fog of the (now-halted) beauty contests begins to clear, it is perhaps possible to glimpse something which, more than a year and a half ago, Broadcast&Production called “the phase 2 digital dividend”. After beginning to speak openly of awarding channels from 50 upwards to the telephony sector, many (perhaps too many?) leapt up in amazement and indignation.
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On the very last day of digital TV transition work in 2011, Italy’s new government, headed by premier Mario Monti, laid out the roadmap for the forthcoming switchoff phase. Corrado Passera, Minister for Economic Development, put his signature to the official rulings which set the dates for the full move to digital TV in 2012. The national road-map, which should see the switch-off completed throughout Italy within the first six months of the year, covers those regions yet to be fully digitalized: - Abruzzo and Molise (including the province of Foggia): 7–23 May; - Basilicata, Puglia (including the provinces of Cosenza and Crotone): 24 May–8 June; - Sicily and Calabria: 11–30 June. Task forces have been set up to help manage the switch-off in these regions. Currently, around 49 million Italians receive (to varying degrees) the digital TV signal. By 30 June, provided there are no delays, coverage should be guaranteed for the entire population. During this phase, the DGTVi association, like other broadcast industry groupings (including Aeranti-Corallo), has called on the government to resume discussions with the industry on the key issues. With specific reference to the switch-off in the south of Italy, this means rethinking the ‘beauty
Even though, officially, there appears to be no further cause for alarm, it is well worth assessing what has actually been happening. On 6 February, the possibility of assigning the UHF channels 50-60 to TLC companies with the forthcoming switch-offs topped the agenda of a meeting at the Ministry of Economic Development. After the suspension of the beauty contest, it did not take much to understand that this was the direction in which the system was heading. The fear, more of a premonition, was that, in the name of budget requirements, the government wanted to bring forward to 2012 the assignment of this band to LTE services rather than to those of the DTT industry, as currently foreseen. From this meeting, it emerged (at least officially) that the 700M Hz band will not be assigned to broadband. At least for the time being. In other words, no, you should not sleep soundly tonight. Roberto Sambuco head of the ministry’s Communications Department, reassured participants at the meeting that the government would not use the Geneva Conference (which ended on Friday 17 February) to apply for the assignment of UHF channels 50 to 60 to broadband services. Summing up the meeting, Aeranti (the association of local broadcasters) secretary general Fabrizio Berrini said: “Mr. Sambuco categorically denied that there was any intention to assign the 700 MHz band to uses other than those currently planned, thus keeping Italy in the same position as the majority of EU nations.”Reading between the lines, however, it seemed that the Geneva gathering would “look into” the “possibility” of assigning other portions of the television spectrum to telco applications. Get the message? The possibility of this “possibility” becoming reality may fuel our anger but certainly comes as no surprise. It is something we had predicted, almost down to the last detail, in issue 6/2010 of our national
trade magazine Broadcast & Production (available online in Italian in our archive at www.broadcast.it). What follows is the translation, into English, of what we wrote then. A year or so later, we do not feel the need to change a single word.
A year on, the doubts remain There was something not right about it. Everybody falling over backwards to explain the huge advantages of the digital dividend. We would be able to better the society in which we live, lay the foundations for a brighter future. But nobody bothered to ask: “brighter for who?” So what is the “digital dividend”? Sometimes a word evolves with a meaning that everybody understands but then, gradually, somebody starts to use it to indicate something slightly different; then they use it for something quite different, and then, a few covert twists down the line, everybody assumes that the real meaning of the term is the one — now completely distorted — that has been reached without anybody even knowing how. Initially, “digital dividend” meant that, with the transition from analogue to digital television, it would have been possible to create space for new broadcasters: with a more efficient use of available spectrum, a frequency could be given to all the “analogue” broadcasters. Moreover, there would be channels free to assign to new broadcasters. It all seemed the most natural thing in the world. Now, however, everybody is talking about Europe, about “pooling”, about “voluntary discontinuation” of channels 6169, about frequency tenders, about broadband connectivity and about telcos. And it all seems so normal to so (too) many. “Dividend” means “something that has to be shared out”. Normally, an asset is shared out between the legitimate owners or users. Otherwise, if you share out something that belongs to someone else, you move dangerously towards the concept of “loot” or “plunder” and all the analogies that can then be drawn.
We have slipped slowly down such a well-designed slope that we have hardly noticed where it has taken us. Every little nudge down the slope arrived from somewhere different; every little step seemed completely unrelated to the one before it. Is this really what has happened? Has it all just happened by chance? Have we really come to the bottom of the slope? Or more importantly, if this is not the bottom of the slope, how much further are we going to slide? (….) What is certain is that LTE technology in the fifth band will cause a huge number of problems related to interference and exposure to electromagnetic fields. And that is not all. They have already thought of the phase 2 digital dividend too. And they are already working on it, on phase 2. This is where we need to take another look at a document from about a year ago. On 29 October 2009, the European Commission approved document COM (2009) 586. It was entitled “Transforming the digital dividend into social benefits and economic growth”. A eulogy of the miracles that the use of the digital dividend would bring to the “community”. That 2009 document, which passed many unobserved, contains the “big picture”. Down to the last detail. It is worth reading the last chapter.
Looking forward (….) there are also more forwardlooking initiatives that could lead to further increases in the potential size and usability of the digital dividend in the long term. The additional capacity that could be obtained would allow the EU to face up to future challenges, such as a sudden increase in demand for spectrum for new, and by definition unforeseen, applications. (…) Among the most promising initiatives identified in the Commission study are: (1) Promoting collaboration between Member States to share future broadcasting network deployment plans (e.g. migration to MPEG-4 or DVB-T2). (2) Requiring that all digital TV receivers sold in the EU after a certain date (to be defined) are
ready to operate with a digital transmission compression standard of the new generation such as the H264/MPEG-4 AVC standard. (3) Setting a minimum standard for the ability of digital TV receivers to resist interference (immunity to interference). (4) Considering wider deployment of Single Frequency Networks (SFNs). (5) Supporting research into ‘frequency-agile’ mobile communications systems. (6) Ensuring the continuity of wireless microphone and similar applications by identifying future harmonised frequencies. (7) Adopting a common position on the potential use of the ‘white spaces’ as a possible digital dividend.” To get a better understanding of what all this means, you need to translate it into everyday language and put the various points into the right chronological order: (3) new television sets must also be able to function in the presence of strong LTE signals arriving from the antenna. Costs: chargeable to the individual user. (2) as of a certain date, all sets must be MPEG-4. Costs: chargeable to the individual user. (1) at a certain point, broadcasters will be forced to move to DVB-T2. With the greater capacity available, broadcasters will not be able to offer new services but it will be possible to pool current broadcasts, thus freeing more channels to be assigned to the phase 2 digital dividend. Costs.: chargeable to and to the detriment of the broadcaster. (4) for those who have still not understood: the channels left free are not for broadcasters who, to free up more space, will have to use SFN networks, bear the costs of implementation and the reductions in transmission capacity that SFN technology involves, and accept the intrinsic reduced reliability compared to MFNs. Costs: chargeable to and to the detriment of the broadcaster. (5), (6) and (7): in each area, all frequencies which are not being used will tacitly be occupied by LTE. Then see if you can shift them.
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