GMA-7 & TV5 URGES NTC TO REVIEW & CONSIDER THE LATEST EUROPEAN TECH FOR DTV!

The country’s top broadcasting companies have backed government’s review of the digital TV standard, saying the move will test the superiority of the Japanese technology over the newer version of the European digital TV platform.

The broadcasting firms said they were willing to delay the rollout of digital TV provided the technology to be used is proven to be the best among those that are available.

“Yes, we support the review because we only want the best standard. That’s a long-term decision that will affect not just the present but the future operations,” GMA Network chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon told reporters at the sidelines of the stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday.

He said it was difficult for the TV networks to start acquiring equipment in preparation for the country’s transition to digital TV if the government had not come up with a final decision yet.

“Supposed the NTC comes out with a European standard and we have the Japanese, that’s a problem,” Gozon said.

TV5 president and chief executive Ray Espinosa said in a text message that the network also supported a review of the standard.

“We have informed the NTC that we would like to test the new version of the European standard and do comparative trials with the Japanese standard,” he said.

“Our preference for the standard will be dictated by costs and efficiencies,” Espinosa added.

ABS-CBN Corp. spokesman Ramon Osorio said in a text message that the TV network “will support whatever will be beneficial for the digital TV initiative and the Filipino viewing public.”

Malacañang ordered the regulator to consider the newer version of European’s digital video broadcasting technology.

“We are reviewing DVB-T2 simultaneously with the drafting of digital TV rules [under a Japanese platform],” NTC deputy commissioner Carlo Juan Martinez told the Manila Standard earlier.

The NTC in June last year issued a circular adopting Japan’s integrated services digital broadcasting technology as the Philippines’ official digital TV platform.

Martinez said it was likely that NTC would delay the rules because the team reviewing DVB-T2 was part of the technical working group drafting the digital TV regulations on the use of the Japanese platform.

Information Courtesy of Manila Standard Today