TV-5 TO START TRIALS FOR ISDB-T VIA ITS MOTHER COMPANY BASED IN JAPAN!

MANILA, Philippines – While regulators hold off on the issuance of digital TV rules to look anew at technology updates, the Associated Broadcasting Corp. (ABC), which operates TV5, served notice it will run trials for the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcast service, running on a platform endorsed by Japan’s largest mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo.

TV5 president Ray Espinosa said Thursday the network plans to conduct the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Technology (ISDB-T) trials in late June or first week of July. “We remain supportive of ISDB-T which we favorably endorsed to the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) previously. Our letter to the NTC is to secure permission to do ISDB-T trials already and also to do comparison with DVB’s (Digital Video Broadcasting) T2,” he said.

His reaction was sought a day after the NTC directed its technical committee to re-evaluate the standards for the DTT broadcast service and to submit its findings on or before June 30, a move expected to delay the issuance of the NTC’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR) on the industry’s migration to digital TV.

Citing “recent developments” pertaining to the endorsement by some players of the second-generation digital video broadcasting (DVB T2) from Europe, NTC chief Gamaliel Cordoba had issued an office order directing the technical committee to re-evaluate the standards for the DTT broadcast service, even though it earlier opted to adopt Japan’s ISDB standard, and to compare the two.

Japan ’s ISDB-T platform is seen to provide more business opportunities because the bandwidth to be given to digital TV can be used to service mobile phones. Emergency warning broadcasts to households are also possible with this technology.

Some industry players, notably GMA Network, had touted, however, the European DVB T2 as superior to Japan’s ISDB-T.

Asked how NTT DoCoMo reacted to the NTC’s latest directive [to re-evaluate the ISDB and compare it with the European standard], Espinosa said, “Our trials are meant for ISDB-T and we will simply compare the results with DVB.”

NTT DoCoMo, he said, is in fact providing TV5 with valuable inputs. “NTT DoCoMo is providing us with their inputs on ISDB technology and implementation,” said Espinosa, who also sits on the board of directors of PLDT.

"TV5 is under MediaQuest Holdings Inc., the holding company of the PLDT retirement fund. PLDT is partly owned by NTT DoCoMo."

Source: http://www.interaksyon.com/article/5318/tv5-to-run-digital-broadcasting-trials-on-japanese-platform