South America Expands Adoption of Japan DTV Standard

Last week the Brazilian Minister of Communications, Helio Costa announced that Argentina had selected SBTVD as its terrestrial DTV standard, according to Presna Latina and Relecturas.

SBTVD is the Japanese ISDB-T system with modifications and enhancements added by Brazil. Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner signed the agreement at the Special Summit of the Union of South American Nations in Bariloche on Friday. Peru recently announced it would be using the SBTVD standard. Costa said negotiations are well advanced for using SBTVD in Chile and Ecuador. With Argentina now onboard, three of the continent’s four largest countries will now wave the SBTVD banner. Elsewhere in Latin America, the U.S. standard--ATSC--has been adopted by Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador; Columbia, Panama and Uruguay have chosen DVB-T.

Another article, on www.telaviva.com.br compares the method used to set royalties and fees for the US ATSC terrestrial standard with those for DVB and SBTVD. In the article, US consultant Ron Gliden is quoted saying (translated from Portugese to English), "Brazil was the only country that instead of accepting the royalty charges based on reasonable and non discriminatory prices, decided to negotiate the prices beforehand. And most importantly, giving preference to open standards."

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.