Philippines ISDB-T will be shifted before 2020

Philippine ISDB-T will be finished shift before 2020, VCAN ISDB-T has been tested in the Philippines. Alvin Bernard Blanco, chief of the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) Broadcast Services Division, said the country could migrate to digital TV as early as 2020. “It could take anywhere from 5 to 10 years,” he said, adding that the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) is finalizing the migration plan.

The migration plan will address the policy, regulatory and technical issues as well as fiscal considerations for the country’s migration to digital TV broadcasting, including the date for the planned analog shut-off (ASO), after which no analog TV will be allowed to operate. Last month, the NTC issued the final implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for digital TV, adopting Japan’s Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard.

Under the IRR, a bandwidth of 6 megahertz shall be assigned to each authorized digital terrestrial TV (DTT) provider for every service area. The NTC also allocated the frequency bands 512-698 Mhz (Channels 21 to 51) for DTT. “A duly authorized DTT service provider shall have the option in its application to the Commission to adopt either single or multi-program HDTV format or single or multi-program SDTV format or any combination thereof for its digital service,” NTC said, adding that any subsequent change in the program format shall require the regulator’s approval. The agency said the provision of new programs, including high-definition (HD) programs, is encouraged in addition to analog legacy programs. Free-to-air TV or non-cable households comprise 90 percent of the Philippines’ 17 million viewers.

Besides Japan, other countries that use ISDB-T are Brazil, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Paraguay. (from http://www.interaksyon.com/business/103414/philippine-shift-to-digital-tv-seen-by-2020)