re: Broadcast market - "The real race has yet to begin"
The race has already begun. Encoders are needed and already being deployed now. They are not waiting for Innovacom's "chip".
I'll grant you that the ramp will accelerate up from here, but being able to make your alliances and prove your products at this stage, will enable you you a bigger piece of the pie later, instead of the remaining crumbs.
You can not go from having no encoder silicon today, to a fully deployable system (using your own silicon), tested and proven ready for prime time, by the end of this year. It won't happen.
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TOKYO, May 29 (Reuters) - After a year of debate, Japan has decided to delay the official launch of terrestrial digital TV services by three years to 2003, giving in to calls from broadcasters over the expected high costs.
The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said on Friday that it expected Japanese TV stations to start digital TV broadcasts in the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya urban areas by 2003 and in other areas by 2006.
But it called on TV stations to start experimental services in the Tokyo area from 2000.
"We acknowledge difficulties broadcasters face in investing one trillion yen ($7.1 billion) in capital spending," a ministry official said.
The year for the terrestrial digital TV launch is a particularly sensitive subject for the ministry, broadcasters and electronics makers.
Digital TV services, which require large investments by broadcasters, are expected to push for convergence of televisions and personal computers, and encourage the development of new products such as PCs that can receive digital TV signals.
The ministry had been concerned that the delay could undermine opportunities for Japanese electronics makers and communications companies in the emerging digital era.
U.S. TV stations will start terrestrial digital TV services in November, and British companies this summer.
To receive digital TV services, viewers will need a set-top decoding box that will unscramble the digital signals.
The set-top boxes will be phased out eventually by digital televisions that incorporate the decoders, making analogue televisions obsolete.
The ministry also said that Japan should switch off existing analogue TV services by 2010.
The delay in the ministry's digital schedule allows terrestrial broadcasters time to concentrate on their other digital TV plans that are less costly.
All five major networks plan to offer digital TV services on satellite platforms from 2000, when Japan will switch its analogue satellite service to digital.
Earlier this week, Nippon Television Network Corp (NTV) and TV Tokyo formed affiliates to seek licences for digital satellite channels.
NTV president Seiichiro Ujiie said earlier this week that the service would be funded by advertising revenues and no charges would be made to viewers, at least in the beginning.
The analogue satellite service has already captured 11 million households in Japan since its launch in 1989.
Analysts say the digital satellite channels will loom as the biggest competitors to two multi-channel pay-TV broadcasters, Sky PerfecTV and DirecTV.
Sky PerfecTV, which was recently created as a result of a merger between two platforms, said it had acquired 700,000 subscribers since 1996. Sky PerfecTV is partly owned by media titan Rupert Murdoch.
DirecTV, partly owned by Hughes Electronics Corp , said its subscribers topped 100,000 in May.
($1=139 yen) |
