French gov’t joins digital TV discussion

The French Embassy in Manila has joined the fray in trying to convince television industry stakeholders to adopt the European digital TV standard as the Philippines moves away from analog broadcasting technology.

The embassy last month said it organized a Digital Video Broadcasting-2 (DVB) Symposium for members of the National Telecommunications Commission body tasked with choosing the best digital standard for the Philippines.

In a statement, the French Embassy reiterated that the DVB-2 standard from Europe was technically superior to the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB) standard from Japan.

The government is currently choosing between the two platforms.

Sébastien Flatresse, an engineer from French broadcast regulatory body Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, said the DVB-2 standard allowed for the transmission of more data at a lower cost to networks and consumers.

Flatresse said the new technology in the DVB-2 standard allowed for “added robustness, increased bandwidth and efficiency of the system” that are not possible with the ISDB platform.

Aside from Japan and several countries in Latin America, the ISDB standard is used nowhere else in the world.

The use of digital broadcasting is seen to provide better image and sound quality as well as more channels for television viewers. Networks will also be able to send more data while using the fraction of the radio frequency.