Philippines adopts Japan standard for digital TV

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MANILA - Its official. The Japanese standard will be the sole platform for the Philippines' migration to digital TV.

In a draft memorandum circular, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said Japan's Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrstrial (ISDB-T) standard would be the sole standard in the delivery of digital terrestrial TV (DTT) services in the Philippines.

ISDB-T is a flexible digital TV transmission system that is capable of providing audio, video and data services to fixed, mobile and handheld terminals without the need for an additional transmission facility.  It also has an early warning system for earthquakes and typhoons.

NTC issued the circular adopting the ISDB-T after President Benigno Aquino III promised Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the Philippines would adopt Japan's standard. Aquino and Abe held talks on the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Brunei.

The NTC said adoption of the Japanese standard was based on the re-evaluation of the latest and most appropriate and suitable DTT standard, to include the emergence of the second-generation DTT standards and the update of the prevailing market price of the set-top boxes.

The NTC said the stakeholders of the TV industry and the Kapisanan ng Broadkaster ng Pilipinas also recommended the adoption of the Japanese standard. 

The regulator's technical working group will immediately convene to draft the implementing rules and regulations and frequency planning for the implementation of digital TV. 

The regulator in 2010 issued an order adopting ISDB-T as the standard and released draft implementing rules and regulations in July 2011, but Malacañang ordered a review of Europe's Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2). 

Besides Japan, other countries that have adopted ISDB-T are Brazil, Peru, Chile, Venzuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Paraguay.

The Philippines had planned to migrate from analog to digital TV come 2015. Free-TV or non-cable households comprise 90 percent of the country's 17 million viewers.

The NTC will hold a public hearing on October 29 for the circular on the Standard for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Broadcast Services. 

The hearing aims to reconfirm with the industry stakeholders the Technical Working Group's recommendation to adopt the Japanese DTT standard as the country's digital TV standard.