Civil Society, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

COMMUNICATIONS-CHILE: Better Definition, Or Less Outlay?

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Apr 11 2007 (IPS) - Until a few days ago, all the indications were that Chile would adopt the European standard for its future digital television system. But the appointment of a new minister of transport and telecommunications has raised hopes among the partisans of the standard used in the United States.

President Michelle Bachelet, who had intended to announce a decision at the end of March, had to postpone it because of her Mar. 26 cabinet reshuffle.

She preferred to give René Cortázar, the new minister, time to study the reports drawn up by the Undersecretariat of Telecommunications (Subtel) on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), based on four public hearings held last year and the available information about the three competing standards.

The choice is between the standards designed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) in the United States, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) in Europe, and Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB) in Japan.

ATSC has been adopted in Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the United States. It provides high resolution images and “surround sound” in preference to a multiplicity of channels. DVB, on the other hand, offers the possibility of transmitting five channels simultaneously at standard quality, and allows interaction with the other systems, as does ISDB, which can also transmit simultaneously to portable devices like mobile phones.

Brazil has adopted a slightly modified version of the Japanese system.

Prior to the recent changes in the Chilean cabinet, it appeared that the government would adopt DVB, which has so far been implemented in 50 countries, mainly because of the comparatively low cost of the set-top box that users of analogue television sets would have to buy in the transition period from analogue to digital signals, which Chilean authorities estimate will last eight to 10 years.

Bachelet said in a speech that the technology selected should have “a clear social and public service orientation; it must reinforce the right to information; and it must strengthen the plural nature of communications and facilitate citizens’ access to technology.”

She also said that DTT “should promote the creation of quality viewing content for the entire population, and facilitate the development of regional and local programmes.”

But the issue was clouded with uncertainty when Cortázar was appointed minister, because of his close ties with open television channels, which have lobbied consistently for adoption of the ATSC standard.

Cortázar was executive director of the public Chilean National Television (TVN) station from 1995 to 2000. He also served as president of the National Television Association (Anatel), today a union of seven open channels. And before he was appointed minister of Telecommunications, he was an adviser to the open Channel 13, run by the Catholic University.

“The ATSC standard is the most compatible with analogue TV, has a lower cost for viewers and broadcasters, involves fewer technical difficulties, and is more flexible and adaptable to the many challenges and activities that may develop from the digital TV model,” Anatel said in a communiqué.

But his arguments were countered by those in favour of the European standard.

Anatel is asking for the present six megahertz (MHz) of bandwidth currently allocated to each broadcaster to be retained, in order to maximise image quality. The association also voiced its concern about how advertising contracts would be shared out, if more broadcasters were allowed to transmit.

According to the Chilean Association of Advertising Agencies (ACHAP), the total amount invested in advertising in 2005 was 735 million dollars, of which 47.4 percent went to open channels, followed by newspapers which received 29.4 percent of the business.

Bachelet said that the decision on the standard would be accompanied by an action plan, which will no doubt include legal reforms. One of these will be the modification of the law forbidding television channels from holding two broadcasting concessions simultaneously, as they will each have to do during the transition from analogue to digital systems.

“We think the government is showing respect and common sense in delaying the announcement of its decision so that the new minister can read up on all the background,” the head of the non-governmental Media Observatory (FUCATEL), Manuela Gumucio, told IPS.

“We don’t think Cortázar is likely to put his personal point of view over and above the years of work carried out by Subtel, nor do we think that the president will allow herself to be pressured if she has already made her decision. Everything points to the selection of the European standard,” she said.

Francisco Gedda, a professor at the state University of Chile’s Institute for Communication and Image (ICEI), said that “Cortázar might be naturally inclined to protect the present model of television.”

The ICEI is lobbying for the DVB system because of its potential for “democratising communications,” since it was designed in a European context that is “multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual.”

Gedda told IPS that the broadcasting-related business associations, joined together in the umbrella group Plataforma Urbana, also prefer the European standard, as do the mobile telephone companies.

“The main thing, in our view, is getting new blood involved and changing the present scenario, because right now television programming is unsatisfactory from any point of view. If the government told us that the U.S. standard would solve these problems, we would accept it, but everything points to the most appropriate choice being the European or the Japanese standards,” said Gumucio, a journalist.

Both Gumucio and Gedda warned against financial considerations being used as an excuse to prevent the emergence of new TV channels.

Digital TV will continue to rely on private advertisers, who will have a much wider range of choice as to where to spend their budget, as programmes will be segmented, Gumucio said.

But she also urged the state to subsidise the public channel and other broadcasters who would cover areas of less interest to advertisers, such as “debate, education and cultural heritage.”

“The most expensive thing in broadcasting a TV programme is producing the content, but now that has changed with the new technologies. For instance, the ICEI, thanks to its journalism and film courses, will have between 500 and 1,000 hours of content in three or four years’ time,” which could perfectly well be aired on TV, Gedda said.

“What lies behind Anatel’s attitude is resistance to a change that brings uncertainty with it,” said Gumucio. That uncertainty will only begin to be clarified when the standard to be implemented is finally announced, she added.