NBTC faces tough choice

The choice will be based on three key criteria – government policy, an agreement between Thailand and Asean countries, and the impact on related businesses and consumers, Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the NBTC’s broadcasting committee, said yesterday.
In 2007, Southeast Asian ministers responsible for information-technology policies endorsed Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial, or DVB-T, a Europe-based consortium standard for the transmission of digital terrestrial TV, as the uniform standard for the region. The regulator plans to start auctioning licences for digital terrestrial TV broadcasting for public service late this year, followed by commercial and community purposes next year, Natee told a seminar organised by the Institute of Social and Economic Policy and the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
Eun-Ju Kim, director for Asia-Pacific at the International Telecommunication Union’s Bangkok-based regional office, said the deadline to switch over to digital TV for the Asia-Pacific region was the end of 2015.
The NBTC has two other options to select from besides DVB-T – the Japanese standard, called Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB), and the Chinese standard, Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DTMB), which is used for mobile and fixed terminals.
Apinunt Thanachayanont, dean of the College of Data Storage Innovation at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, said Europe’s standard was now a new version, DVB-T2, which allows broadcasters to transmit TV in three-dimensional (3D) and high-definition (HD) formats on mobile and digital terrestrial TV platforms.
Satoru Yanagishima, director of the Global ICT Business Promotion Office at Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, said the ISDB standard could offer a wide range of services including e-government, e-health and e-education to promote rural development. With ISDB technology, the government could also provide an emergency warning broadcasting system as well as interactive data broadcasting.
ISDB receivers are affordable; for example, set-top boxes are priced at US$20 (just over Bt600) each and mobile devices at $60, he said.
Zhan Chao, assistant dean at the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, China, said DTMB was widely used in Laos and Cambodia. This would benefit local governments, broadcasters or even advertisers in using the same standard.
There are more than 10 plants in China that produce set-top boxes costing less than $20, he said.
Jamnan Siritan Nunbhakdi, chairman and chief executive officer of JSL Global Media, said the digital TV decision should be made at the government level, with the affordability of set-top boxes, long-term benefits and public interest as the top priorities.