Uruguay's change from digital terrestrial television (DTT) demonstrates Brazil's strong campaign of its model. This change leaves Colombia as the only country with the European standard in South America.
By Richard Santa
Three years ago the Government of Uruguay had decided to adopt the European digital television model DVB-T, during the presidency of Tabaré Vázquez, but his successor since 2010, José Mujica, announced at the end of December the reversal of this decision and the adoption of the Brazilian SBTVD model.
The particular thing about this decision is that it was not taken based on technical conditions or economic benefits of either of the two models, but because of "an aspect of geopolitical conviction", because this is a model that Brazil has adopted and that it has been proposing to the other countries of the region.
This was reported by Foreign Minister Luis Almagro and Industry Minister Roberto Kreimerman, when announcing the decision last December on the digital model to be adopted in Uruguay in 2014, to replace the analog one.
The officials assured that "there is a dialogue with Brazil about the possibility that this homologation will bring investments from that country to Uruguay, but the decision is not based on the amount of investments we could receive but on something more fundamental. The government understood that it should deepen its integration with Brazil and in the region, at a productive and technological level."
Luis Almagro added that with this decision they seek to be consistent with the integration discourse, prioritizing bilateral relations with Argentina, Brazil and Mercosur. It is the first time in the world that a country has changed its digital television model after choosing it.
Before making the decision to choose the European model in November 2007, being the first country in the region to do so, the Government of Uruguay had studied for a year the models of the United States ATSC, the Brazilian SBTVD and the European DVB.
The model adopted in Uruguay after the change, the SBTVD, is a hybrid of the Japanese MODEL ISDB-T, to which Brazil after adopting it made some modifications.
At the time of the reversal, the Delegation of the European Union in Uruguay said in a statement that "We believe that the European standard for DVB-T digital terrestrial television, shared by 133 countries around the world, has demonstrated its technical and economic value, so we regret the decision of the Uruguayan Government."
Carlos Fructuoso, president of Linear, the main transmitter manufacturer in Brazil and a member of the Brazilian Digital TV Forum, explained that Uruguay's change was also motivated by European defaults.
"For three years Uruguay waited for the promises made by the European Community of millionaire investments and they did not arrive, nor have they fulfilled Colombia. At the same time, it doesn't make sense for a country to have a solution other than its entire region."
He added that since the last elections in Uruguay they began to present to the new government the idea of adopting the system that the entire region has would be the best option.
The Integrated Services Digital Transmission (ISDB) model is the standards created by Japan for digital television broadcasting.
Several components emerge from this, such as ISDB-S satellite television, ISDB-C cable television, ISDB-Tmm multimedia services, ISDB-Tsb digital radio and ISDB-T and ISDB-Tb digital terrestrial television. From these emerged the SBTVD of Brazil.
For its part, the European model, Digital Video Broadcasting, DVB, has standards such as DVB-S and DVB-C that contemplate the transmission of digital television signals through satellite and cable distribution networks respectively.
And the difference?
Most countries in South and Central America have adopted the Brazilian SBTVD model, which responds to a successful campaign by the giant in the region.
Uruguay was isolated from the countries with which it shares a territorial border in terms of digital terrestrial television, because all had chosen Brazilian.
In total, of the 10 countries in South America, only Colombia remains with the European DVB model and the remaining 9 countries adopted the Brazilian SBTVD model. No country in the region adopted the U.S. ATSC model.
This situation recalls the discussion that occurred in the late 70s when the region was defining the model that each country would adopt for color television.
At that time, Argentina and Uruguay chose the model of Germany, while the rest of the countries of South America went for the model of the United States.
These two countries had to face different problems such as that televisions were more expensive and those carried from other countries did not work. In addition, when there was an exchange of products between a country that did not have the same color television model, there were technical problems.
But experts say that at this time, with the discussion about digital television, things are very different and Colombia will not have to face many problems.
Carlos Fructuoso explained that the Brazilian model is mainly more robust than the European one and has mobile services within the channel of the station, unlike the European one, in which mobile services are in another band and are explored by telephone companies.
"Another point is that the European uses 8MHz channels and the rest of the region uses 6MHz. Thus the European television stations and Set Top Boxes, to work in America, are more expensive.
Colombia will not change
Engineer Mauricio Zamudio, a member of the National Television Commission, the entity in charge of the implementation of digital television in Colombia, explained to TV and VIDEO that that country is not thinking of changing the digital television model it has already chosen.
"Colombia chose a standard after a very long, judicious and detailed process to analyze the standards that existed in the market and compared the main variables to determine which was the most convenient for the country. It was a technical decision and not a political one."
He stressed that the European standard is not closed to a single country and that the equipment for transmission and reception is manufactured in all companies that produce technology, because the model is present in more than 130 countries, and this means that there are no high costs for these products.
Regarding the difference in the digital terrestrial television model chosen by Colombia with the rest of the countries of South America, Commissioner Mauricio Zamudio said that there will be no problem to market programs, because they all have a single standard and the difference is in the transmission.
"For cities located on the borders with other countries and that are used to seeing the channels of the public network of both nations, if they will have problems because each model has its encoder and that is why they will only be able to see the channels of the network of the country where they are located."
He also gave as an example analog television, "in South America two different models operated and for more than four decades there were no difficulties."
He acknowledged that in recent months they have had conversations with representatives of Brazil who promote the SBTVD digital television model, but that they have been clear in responding that Colombia already has a selected model, based on a technical decision and that it will not be changed.
He added that the determination is impossible to change because last December the private television channels of Colombia, Caracol and RCN, began to broadcast digital signal with the European DVB model, after the installation of equipment for this purpose and that they are able to provide this service to 25% of Colombians, that is, since they have the required equipment.
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