Future of TV: An Asia-Pacific perspective on need to leapfrog to 2nd-gen DTV delivery systems/services
By Dr Amal Punchihewa
The future of TV is a widely debated and discussed topic, deeply intertwined with the evolution of broadcasting. To grasp this, we need to better understand the contextual meaning of Broadcasting and Television.
Television evolved over seven decades as a means of providing a mechanism to view a live or delayed event (live-to-tape, recorded, on-demand) at a distance where the viewer could not be physically present. This could be mainly due to distance (“tele”) but technology enabled the viewer to see the event’s sequence of pictures (“vision”). Today, television continues to involve its three main functions — capture, process and transport.
The transportation mechanism for a wider audience was called broadcasting, as it was intended for all. Initially, radio waves were used for television broadcasting services. Over the years, radio waves, which carry the information over-the-air (OTA), were extended from ground-based (terrestrial) to satellite-based (extra-terrestrial). These transportation mechanisms were augmented by cable services where such infrastructures are/were available.
Except in developed countries like the US and Europe, not all countries have access to such infrastructure. Due to large geographic areas and other reasons, even developed countries such as Australia and New Zealand have very limited wired (fibre or copper or hybrid) television services. New Zealand, for instance, does not have a traditional and true IPTV service.
The reception of signals utilises a device called a television set, which is equipped with radio frequency circuits, signal processing and a display panel. This evolved from the humble beginnings of the electro-mechanical system, the Nipkow disk. Today, we enjoy LED displays having phased out CRT tube and LCD panels in many countries.
Broadcasting has at least three functions: to inform, to entertain, and to educate without any barriers as access to information and education are human rights.
A de-regulation of the broadcast and media sector in the 1980s and 1990s paved the way for commercial broadcasters. However, we need to understand the distinction between public services media (PSM) and others.
With the de-regulations, PSM faced various changes in funding its operations while meeting the expectations and obligations of the public. To date, many PSM operators have been navigating this challenge despite the disruptions brought by technological advancements and the uneven playing field of the broadcasting and media landscape.
The two key messages from the above discussions are:
- Today, broadcasting is not what it was decades ago. PSM and other broadcasters have evolved, developing technologies and adopting appropriate technologies to serve the public. Hence, PSM should continue to evolve as it has done in the last four decades — developing immunity to noise created by opportunists who exploit the media landscape while the public is responding to these changes.
- The television set is not what it once was. Today, it is a device with substantial computational capacity, multiple connectivity options and a display panel. Receiver manufacturers are also trying to become gatekeepers, inhibiting access to the information, education and entertainment offered by free-to-access services.
The future of television will continue to evolve; television is neither dead nor dying. Broadcast engineers and other stakeholders in the industry are continuing their innovation, research and development to service the public efficiently and effectively. We see digital transformation in various sectors around the world, a transformation that is also taking place in the broadcasting and media sectors.
Broadcasters and media operators have been embracing appropriate technologies for capture, processing and distribution, all within the manageable scale of their operation.
In the 1990s, many countries started exploring digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting technologies. While many countries have made the transition to DTT, some have not made the DTT transition, despite the lapse of nearly 35 years, as satellite direct-to-home (DTH), IPTV from telcos, and cable television services from content aggregators are generally expensive to access, digital broadcast television services can be unaffordable due to excessive price and/or inaccessibility due to gatekeeping.
Online access has been growing slowly. However, over-the-top (OTT) services supported by Content Distribution Networks (CDN) are also expensive. More than the cost of delivery, broadband (the Internet) is not available to the majority of households and people at an affordable cost/price in many countries.
True universal access to broadcast and media services requires both the availability of a broadband network (capable of media delivery) and affordable pricing, preferably without a gatekeeper. Despite ITU’s continued efforts with other UN and relevant broadband organisations, more than one-third of the world population still do not have any form of internet access, even to send a text message!
Over recent years, broadcast technologies have made tremendous advancements in many facets. Second-generation technologies have improved the capacity and efficiency of their transportation system or DTT systems. We are very close to the theoretical limit of achieving a practical transportation system for DTT.
ATSC 3.0, the second generation of the ATSC system, has also enhanced its ability to work with IP. DVB-T2 is also a second-generation DTT technology providing high capacity and high efficiency.
Not-for-profit membership organisations such as DVB have been developing technologies to future-proof the future of television, while simultaneously leveraging current digital television broadcasting delivery methods such as terrestrial, satellite, and broadband. These have been standardised as DVB-I and DVB-NIP as this column previously highlighted.
DVB-NIP (Native IP) combined with DVB-T2 results in a DTT delivery system that is similar to ATSC 3.0, both in terms of spectral efficiency and in offering a fully IP-based core.
DVB-I, on the other hand, is a service layer that allows services delivered from any network type to be discovered transparently on the end-user side. This network-agnostic approach allows broadcasters to adopt a flexible and hybrid use of the most appropriate delivery network, including non-DVB ones.
Due to the sharing of the budget between online access and OTA access, broadcasters are considering reducing the number of OTA channels and consolidating general programme channels over the air. Niche audience programmes and channels are likely to be served online in the future.
Several broadcasters in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Vietnam have leapfrogged to second-generation transportation technologies for DTT through bypassing the first-generation technology they initially planned for. This has enabled them to access DTT networks with more capacity.
Another important factor that determines DTT adoption is the television receiver. Until we import built-in receivers with that country’s parameters, an affordable set-top-box (STB) is the key to facilitating the immediate transition. It is recommended to evaluate both transmission efficiency and the cost of the receiver or set-top-box. It is not essential to adopt very recent codecs as they could be expensive due to high royalty demands from the developers. Instead, we can see how APAC countries have taken advantage of technologies appropriately.
Any country that is yet to go DTT should at least take advantage of second-generation DTT technologies. There is no sense for a country to adopt a first-generation technology now when more efficient and high-capacity mature DTT technologies are available. They should also consider how well such DTT technologies can work with other limited complementary delivery methods such as online, satellite and possibly in the future, emerging 5G broadcasting technologies.
In summary, it is not too late to start a DTT service unless any country can provide all households with fibre-to-home (FTTH) universal access or fixed wireless access (FWA) from 4G or 5G to support at the minimum, multiple HD services at an affordable price that is comparable to the average per capita earning of that country.
There is a wide range of mature technologies available to facilitate affordable DTT access that provide more than adequate capacity. The sensible recommendation is to adopt a high-capacity, highly efficient transportation technology (DTT) supported by an affordable codec technology.
With World Television Day being celebrated on November 21, next month’s column will take a further deep dive into the future of television, and discuss key outcomes from the ITU workshop held in November 2024, and more importantly, what it means for the Asia-Pacific region.
