digital televisions

8/12/2019 Digital Televisions

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Digital television is the system ofbroadcasting television using digital signals.Digital signals are a flux of information

(audio, video and data) represented as a serieof numbers ones and zeros, meaning that anelectronic signal is there or it is not there.

By Francesca Burichetti ([email protected])


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SOFA TV

DESKTOP TV

HAND TV

Web TV

Satellite TVIptv

Digital Terrestrial Television DTT)

Mobile TV


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The motivation behind development of digital television can betraced back to the history of analogical broadcasting. In fact atthe end of 1980s in the USA the main players of the broadcastingindustry convinced the FCC to create a committee to study thedesirability and the potential impact of the switch on digital

television.

So, at the beginning of 1988 a lot of different high definitiontelevision systems (both analogical and digital) were tested.

The main problem that broadcasters faced in creating interactiveand advanced television was that the broadcast spectrum wasalready saturated with analogical signals. The only possiblesolution seemed to be the switch to a digital system.


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An analogical signal of the same quality of a digital one requiressignificantly greater bandwidth. Starting from this point of viewthe FCC decided to implement a pro-all digital policy in the1990s.

While the USA decided to develop an all digital system, Japanpreferred to adopt a mixed system (analogical and digital) forhigh definition tv. The Japan arrived first in the development ofits HDTV standard, but it had no success. Even if the USAdeveloped their system later, they won, because of the better

quality of their all-digital system.

Japanese Government adopted the Muse system since the1979, but the market was not ready for the HDTV and theproduct was not attractive.


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USA DTV was on the market only in the 1997, but its quality wasbetter and the products resulted attractive for the end users. USAadopted the ATSC standard.

In the same years also the European countries launched on themarket their digital tv, using the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)standard.

Nowdays on the global market different closed standards exist.


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Digital signal compression

Larger number of channels and tv

programmes

Possibility to achieve also people who istravelling

Interactive consumption

Better audiovisualquality


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High involvment of the end user (paticipation)

Schedules personalization

Public and social communication

Pluralism?


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DIGITALDIVIDE

Low digital and ITalphabetization

Scarce bandwidth coverage

Low literacy rate in some worldareas


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The broadcasters have to cope with high costto have access to new technologies and to theknow how to use them. At the moment themarket presents high entrance barriers for

new comers and little players.

Problems in the copyright protection (piracyand illegal download of contents).

TRUST MARKET


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It has been the way to protect the electronicindustry that is coping with an hard anddifficult economic crisis since the end of the1980s.

It is the best opportunity to develop andstrengthen the Information Society.

It is the only possible solution to the problemof frequency band scarcity


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Viviane Reding is the EU commissioner forInformation Society and Media. She is a veryactive member of the Group of the EuropeanCommission focused on the Lisbon Strategy,so she works for a concrete contribution to

the development of the ICT sector.

The European Commission and the Member States ofthe EU are working together in developing EuropeanInformation Society, that is a very important goal tocreate a competitive Europe.


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Creating an open and competitive singlemarket for Information Society and MediaServices within the EU.

Increasing EU investment in research onInformation and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT) by 80%.

Promoting an inclusive European InformationSociety to close the gap of the digital divide.


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This new directive will amends and renamethe actual Television Without FrontiersDirective and will be transposed in nationallaw by the end of 2009.

The main principles will not be changed: promoting the production and the distribution of

European works, paying attention also toindependent content producers;

access of the public to all the major (sports) events;

protection of minors.


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Whats new?

The new Directive takes into account also the on demand (non-linear) contents. Linear and non-linear contents are treateddifferently, considering the end user control over the service.

On Demand services are thus subject to lighter regulation.In this way the Directive protects minors, ensures accessibleservices to people and, at the same time, recognizes thefundamental role of the users choice and his responsibility inthe new On Demand environment.


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41,6

55,6 67,9

89,9

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40,7%

33,3%

27,6%

010

20304050

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90100

2004 2005 2006 2007

mlnabitazioni

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

%

mln abitazioni %

At the end of the 2007 more than50% of European families had anaccess to a digital television.

Td

34

Cavo

Digitale

18%

Iptv

6%

Satellite

42%DTV

54%

Analogico46%Western Europe digital accessat the end of 2007.


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This technology is the way to broadcastdigital television services using terrestrialfrequencies.

Thanks to the signal compression, DTT allowsto provide a greater number of channels withthe same quality of the ones provided by

analogical conventional tv.

Main standards:

ATSC(in North America and South Korea).ISDB-Tin Japan and Brazil.

DVB-Tin Europe, Australia, New Zeland,Columbia, Uruguay and some States of Africa.


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BENEFITS OFDTT

Greater number of channels and betterquality

Interactive services T-Government

Cheapness

Easy to be used

UNIVERSALITY

PROBLEMS OFDTT

Technical problems due to the scarcediffusion of the broadband

Low success of the interactive services

Incomplete coverage of the signal


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The analogical switch-off and the passage todigital terrestrial tv is the best solution to solvethe problems of frequency scarcity.

For this reason in the Geneva 2006 Agreement,

regulating frequency usage in Europe, Africa andparts of Asia, national administrations agreed tostop their analogical services along their bordersby 2015.

In Europe the last data for the switch-off hasbeen fixed at 31stDecember 2012.


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Europe is leading the world in the process of theanalogical switch-off, to free up the radio-television spectrum and to ensure citizens theadvantages due to digital tv.

The digital terrestrial tv grows very quickly inEurope. The e-Media Institute observed that atthe end of 2008, 13 million of new Europeanfamilies adopted digital television.

According to a research (made in France,Germany, Italy, UK and Spain) 50% of 13 millionsfamilies were DTT adopters.


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COUNTRY BASICBOUQUET PREMIUMBOUQUET SINGLECHANNELS PAY PERVIEWFinland X

France X X

UK X X

Italy X X

Netherlands X X

Sweden X X X

This table summarizes the main strategies used by European pay-tvoperators on the DTT. You can observe that many use the 5 bundlingstrategies.


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The image indicates the phases of Italian switch-off.

The digital terrestrial tv is very important for our country because we have

no cable tv, so it is the best way to have a multi-channel service. Also for this

reason we have a strong pay tv service on DTT, differently by other

European countries.


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Satellite television is a TV system in which thesignals are transmitted to an orbiting satellitethat receives the signals, amplifies them andtransmits them back to the earth.

The end user can receive these signals trough aproper dish and a set top box.

This has been the first successful digital tv inEurope.


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BENEFITS OFSAT TV

Large availability of channels

National and international coverage

Trasmission of a lot of high definition contents

PROBLEMS OFSAT TV

Expensive and often private service

Low interactive services

Technical problems


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Thanks to its high number of channels thesatellite tv is the best digital platform for paytv all over Europe.

Sat TV is the queen of

premium contents and of

thematic television.


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In Italy we have only a pay tv provider on satellite tv:Sky Italia (owned by NewsCorporation). So we have amonopoly: there is no competition on this digitalplatform.

Sky Italia was born in 2003 as a result of a mergerbetween Stream and Telepi (the two old competitorson Italian market). The merger has been allowed bythe European Commission to avoid a market

downturn.

Until 2005 Sky Italia was the unique pay tv provider onItalian market, but now competition is emerging,

thanks to DTT development


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The Iptv is a system where the digital tv is deliveredover the Internet Protocol (IP), thanks to a networkinfrastructure (multicast), usually based onbroadband connection.

It is considered a form of cable television and it isusually delivered by telecommunication providersthat buy contents from other broadcasters or contentproducers.

This service is usually sold in bundling with phoneand Internet services (triple pl y str tegy).


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BENEFITS OFIPTV

Highest number of available channels

Efficient communication and feedback

channel between providers and consumers

Best effort for the interactive services and

personalization opportunities (VOD).

PROBLEMS OFIPTV

Expensive service, based on closed

standard

Scarce broadband diffusion


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The main research

institutes forecast a

strong growth for this

technology by the 2012,

overall in Asia and inWest Europe, where the

typical cable tv is not

widespread.

The image (by Gartner Research Group) indicates the numbers ofsubscribers in different areas of the world.


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SERVICEPROVIDER

COUNTRY NUMBER OFSUBSCRIBERS

France Telecom France 577.000

Telefonica Spanish 383.000

Free France 310.000

Neuf Telecom France 300.000

Fastweb Italy 170.000

Belgacom Belgium 140.000

Tiscali UK United Kingdom 45.000

The data are updated at the end of 2006 by e-Media Institute Research

This table shows that the most advanced European country in the IPTV sector is

France followed by Spain and Italy.


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The Web Tv is a digital system televisiondelivered over the Web. It is not the same asIptv even though both use the InternetProtocol.

The Iptv is based on a closed and proprietarynetwork (multicast), while the Web Tv isbased on the open, unicast Web. Every onecan upload and distribute a video on the Web!

Web Tv is based on one to onecommunication so it is at the opposite side oftraditional broadcasting.


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WHO ARE THE WEBTV SERVICE

PROVIDERS ANDCONTENT

PRODUCERS?

Television Broadcasters (as ABC inUSA)

Other kinds of broadcasters

coming from the radio or

newspaper world (Corriere.it Tv)

Web Publishers (as Current Tv or

Messenger Tv)

Telecommunication companies

(Yalp! Tv)

End users (User Generated

Contents)

VIDEO SHARING SITES(YouTube, DailyMotion, Hulu)

Corporate televisions


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BENEFITS OFWEB TV

Open and interactive platform

High personalization power and possibility

of choice for the end users

New format and kind of contents (UGC)

Focused advertisements

Low cost and free services

Catch-up tv consumption

PROBLEMS OFWEB TV

Technical limits and low quality

Piracy phenomenon

Inadequacy for live contents

Uncertainty of the business model

Lack of a clear definition of the view


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COUNTRY TELEVISIONFrance 48%

Spanish 38%

Germany 36%

Italy 35%

United Kingdom 32%

Percentage of Internet

users that in 2007 used

also Web Tv services.

(Data communicated by

the Idate Research

Group)

Number of

Web Tv in

variouscountries of

the World.


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Is Web Tv a real threat for Sofa Tv?

Will UGC and piracy destroy premiumcontents?

Which business model will win in the future,free to air or pay tv?

Do new platforms represent a trueopportunity for new comers and smallplayers?

digital televisions

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