[opendtv] 7% penetration for UK HD-DTT by 2012: report

H.264 has no significant part in any of this, in terms of actual
bandwidth savings. The fact is, another transition is required to
introduce OTA HD in Europe, regardless of the codec.

It's not clear what the "first route" or "second route" are. The MIMO
scheme is probably one of the two approaches, maybe something more like
the Chinese system is another.

Bert
  
http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?class=countries&subclass=0&id=2974

7% penetration for UK HD-DTT by 2012: report

Heavy bandwidth constraints are crippling digital terrestrial
broadcasters and imposing barriers to their future HDTV offering. This
could result in just 7% penetration of high definition digital
terrestrial television (HD-DTT) in the UK by 2012, with a similar
scenario playing out across Europe, according to a new broadcast
tracking and analysis service from Understanding & Solutions.

The report claims that, while many consumers are still confused about
high definition, the message is starting to get through and, in Europe,
nearly 80 channels provide at least some HD content with most satellite,
many cable and even a number of IPTV platforms now carrying HD, with
some operators offering up to 15 channels. The report authors argue that
the future for HD-DTT may be 'bleak', placing public service
broadcasting at a disadvantage and creating a viewing hierarchy of
'haves' and 'have-nots'.

"Improvements in compression technologies like MPEG-4 AVC are making
HD-DTT solutions a possibility," says Graeme Packman, Principal
Consultant at Understanding & Solutions, "although only with a very
limited number of channels. Further technological development will help
breach the bottleneck, but it's a slow process requiring considerable
international coordination."

According to the report, the UK is currently taking the lead in
addressing some of these issues and has two separate sets of proposals.
The first is a formal proposal backed by the UK regulator Ofcom, and is
going through a structured evaluation process. The second route is an
ambitious set of proposals put forward in an independent expert industry
group report to the DVB standards group and the DTG, which could result
in 40 HD-DTT channels becoming available. This would certainly give the
terrestrial platform critical mass as a HD source, and a fighting chance
against satellite and cable.

"Implementation of the more radical of these proposals could require the
amendment of currently agreed spectrum allocations," continues Packman,
"which will mean the rapid obsolescence of broadcasters' investment
plans for digital transition. However, it would lead to more frequencies
being handed back and potentially a greater opportunity for the
government to raise money.

"To make this happen, two of the 14 frequencies due to be handed back at
ASO need to be retained with a view to handing back up to ten more
frequencies in the future."

Implementation of the plans may also require modification of the
transmission systems already being implemented, which have seen the
investment of hundreds of millions of pounds by UK broadcasters.
Needless to say, this is not very appealing to them, and gaining their
support may be difficult, if not impossible.

Although much of the development work for both proposals has been done
for the UK market, the intention is that they could be applied
internationally to maximise terrestrial spectrum efficiency across
Europe and elsewhere. However, there's the risk of division in the
implementation of HD-DTT across Europe: an unwelcome situation for
equipment and component manufacturers who are looking to true
pan-European products.

"To compound the problem, most countries are already well down the track
of implementing the transition to DTT," says Packman, "with considerable
investment by broadcasters, transmission companies and other interested
parties. It will be very difficult for these organisations to change
track and write off money that has already been drawn down."

DTG Staff 22.04.2008
 
 
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