ABS-CBN to Launch Digital TV Service Tomorrow

The era of Digital TV is now forthcoming: Broadcast giant ABS-CBN is set to launch its Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) service tomorrow, February 11.

This news comes after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a memorandun outlining the guidelines to shift to DTT broadcast December last year. Aptly named ABS-CBN TV Plus, it will air Channel 2 with clear picture and sound along with four additional exclusive channels that promise to cater to varied marketing segments.

The NTC chose Japan’s ISDB-T as the national DTT broadcast standard over the European DVB-T2 counterpart. In a nutshell, ISDB-T has a consistent performance and reception even in far-flung and rural areas. It also provides interactive services, can have additional multiple standard-definition (SDTV) channels and a mobile channel (dubbed as 1seg), and can be received indoors with a simple indoor antenna.

ABS-CBN is not the first one to make their DTV switch: Eagle Broadcasting Corporation started their ISDB-T broadcast transmission thru GEMNET back in 2009. Under the NTC guidelines, it is required to simulcast the DTTB service along with the analog TV service for one year upon the grant of authority to provede the former.

The NTC is now looking to order analog television frequencies to be shut down by 2018, but this may change depending on adoption and migration to the new television standard.

Source: ABS-CBN News Online