Mexico and its transition policy
From the moment Mexico announced its decision to adopt the North American ATSC standard, the government and the private sector established a 'Transition Policy to Digital Terrestrial Television' focused on five basic aspects: digital inclusion, quality, strengthening of television activity, new digital services, and optimization in the use of spectrum.
Likewise, the country developed a transition calendar in six triennial periods ranging from 2004, the year of the election of the standard, until 2021. The first period, which ended in December 2006, contemplated the presence of two digital signals in more than ten cities. The second and third stages, which will conclude in 2012, demand the digital replication of the commercial signals generated in the previous periods and the coverage of an increasing number of inhabitants.
The last three periods, ending in 2021, indicate the spread of commercial and non-commercial digital signals in coverage areas of one and a half million inhabitants onwards, and the digital replication of all analogue channels, in all analogue television coverage areas.
On the other hand, high definition can be offered free of charge with the ATSC A/53 standard, which requires 19.1 Mbps of the transmission capacity of the 6 MHz channel, for content that changes constantly.
According to this policy, DTV transmissions must be of high definition quality (HDTV) or enhanced quality (EDTV) and, for the start of digital transmissions of each additional channel, the DTV must have, at a minimum, standard quality (SDTV).
According to Robert Graves, president of the ATSC Forum, in an interview with TV and Video, there are currently 37 television stations on the air in Mexico covering the largest cities and the border region with the United States. This amount represents a coverage of 37% of households in the country. "About a year ago we learned that more than two million ATSC signal receivers had been sold in this country," Graves added.
In border countries, the progress of ATSC has also been remarkable. There are three stations in Honduras transmitting digital signals under the ATSC standard, while Guatemala and Costa Rica have one station on the air each even though these countries have not yet made official decisions on the DTV standard they will adopt.
"The technology is mature enough with more than 2,000 on-air stations in the United States, Canada and South Korea. The initial challenge in any country that implements DTV transmissions is related to the choice of the best business model, including adequate programming to support it, as well as the financing of the investments required by the transmitters for the construction and adaptation of their stations so that they can operate in parallel with their stations. analog during a period of migration," Graves said.
On the availability of set-top boxes for ATSC, Graves noted that, with one big exception, there hasn't been a huge market for set top boxes for ATSC. This is because, according to him, all TVs sold in the United States now have the ATSC reception capability built into them. Therefore, in that country more than 30 million ATSC receivers are sold per year, most of them to be included in high-definition televisions. "The current high demand is to improve the technical quality of HDTV, and that is where the market is."
The exception, according to Graves, is the low-cost market for converters that receive the ATSC digital signal and display it on existing analog TVs. "There can be no concern about the availability of these boxes. There are more than 190 models available and more than 29 million of these boxes have been sold between 2008 and 2009. There was no market for these types of boxes until the U.S. government set a date for turning off analog television signals; this was to allow the government to disable analog transmissions and recover 108 MHz of highly valuable spectrum nationwide that will be used for emergency services and other innovative wireless applications," Graves said.
In Mexico, the issue that has generated the greatest expectation among transmitters has been how much flexibility should be given to them in the use of their 6 MHz channels for digital television. In the United States, the only requirement is to offer a program as a standard definition. After that, broadcasters can offer whatever they want from their HDTV channel as programs on SDTV; information, including interactive services; mobile or handheld applications, or combinations of all of the above.
"Mexico has established a long transition plan for digital broadcasting. They won't even reach full deployment of the DTV system until 2021 (a 17-year plan); and this just means having DTV stations on the air all over the country. They have not set a goal for turning off analog signals. The main obstacles in this market are having adequate DTV content that is unique and attractive, and paying for the construction of new digital television stations throughout the country," said Graves.
