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Brazil Leans on South America to
Adopt Its Digital TV Standard
Darío Montero interviews Brazilian Communications
Minister HELIO COSTA
MONTEVIDEO (IPS) - Brazil is lobbying hard to get the
rest of Latin America to adopt the Brazilian version of
the Japanese digital television standard, as Argentina,
Chile, Peru and Venezuela have already done.
This week, it offered Uruguay 40 million dollars in aid
if the incoming government backs out of its agreement
with the European Union to adopt the DVB standard used
in Europe and other parts of the world.
During a brief visit to Montevideo, the capital of this
country of 3.4 million people wedged between South
American giants Brazil and Argentina, Brazilian
Communications Minister Helio Costa pressed the
advantages offered by the ISDB-Tb (Japanese standard -
Brazilian version) in meetings with representatives of
the incumbent government of Tabaré Vázquez and the
incoming administration of José Mujica, both of whom
belong to the left-wing Broad Front coalition.
The Brazilian government's aim is to persuade Mujica,
who takes office Mar. 1, to reconsider the 2007
agreement reached by the Vázquez administration with the
EU and adopt the ISDB-Tb standard, Costa said in this
interview with IPS at the end of his meeting with
Uruguayan officials.
Costa and several of his advisers met with a delegation
headed by Uruguay's Minister of Industry Raúl Sendic and
Senator Eduardo Bonomi, president-elect Mujica's
right-hand man.
"Brazil is offering Uruguay 600,000 dollars today to use
in the field of interactivity and the production of
content for digital TV" and, "if it says yes, more than
40 million dollars" to invest in the construction of
equipment and the development of technology, said the
minister, who was not hesitant to criticise the European
DVB system.
Q: What results did you obtain in this first meeting
with the Uruguayan government?
A: It went really well. We came to propose joint
participation in the development of digital TV in
Mercosur (the Southern Common Market trade bloc, made up
of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).
Brazil adopted the ISDB-T system and perfected it with a
series of innovations of our own, that will benefit, for
example, public health, security, education and culture
programmes.
From the original Japanese standard, Brazilian experts
developed a more modern system that has a wider reach.
Q: What is Brazil offering Uruguay?
A: Joint action, to transfer to Uruguay the technology
that we have received from Japan, as we have done in
Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela, which have already
adopted the system. And we are still negotiating with
other countries as well.
Q: But Uruguay already chose the European system. Do you
think the Mujica administration will reconsider
Vázquez's decision?
A: That happened in Argentina. The government of Carlos
Menem (1989-1999) had signed an agreement to adopt the
U.S. ATSC system. But after carrying out a thorough
study, the administration of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007)
concluded that the best technology was Japan's.
The thing is, the European system that was offered to
Uruguay has been surpassed; it's already old.
For example, the video compressor used in the European
and U.S. systems is not even made anymore. It's so old
that Germany, one of the main producers of inputs for
the DVB system, is considering shifting to the Japanese
standard.
What we want is the sharpest high definition digital
television, with broad coverage in terms of kilometres
and free mobile broadcasting, none of which are possible
with the DVB system because it is dependent on the
telephone line. Nor are royalties paid for this
technology.
Q: Why did Brazil adopt a system on its own, and later
negotiate with its neighbours, to persuade them to
follow suit? Wasn't it possible to reach a previous
Mercosur, or broader regional, agreement?
A: Maybe that was a mistake. We could have done things
better. But in Brazil we felt that we were far behind
the rest of the world with respect to digital
television, and that we couldn't wait. If we had decided
to seek a joint approach in the region, it would have
delayed things for us by two or three years.
So we reached the decision at the time that best
addressed the geographic situation of our country and of
South America, and afterwards we realised that it was
virtually an obligation to expand our positive
experience to our Mercosur partners.
Q: What does the offer consist of?
A: If Uruguay were to decide tomorrow to start working
with the Japanese-Brazilian system, it would get a head
start on the process, because there is already a kind of
script on how to do everything; the standards with Japan
have been set. Everything's simpler now.
And principally, just as the Japanese have transferred
their technology to us, we are willing to transfer it to
Uruguay.
Q: One of the criticisms triggered by the choice of the
ISDB-T system was that although it allowed Brazil to
develop technology, there would be no external market
for that technology - with the exception of Japan, of
course.
A: If you look at the global map of digital television
today, you'll see how much progress has been made in
less than two years. Besides Japan, Brazil, Argentina,
Chile, Peru and Venezuela, the ISDB-T system is about to
be adopted by Ecuador and Costa Rica, and we are also
working on South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and other
parts of Africa.
Brazil's goal is not to sell digital television
equipment; our aim is for the region to receive the
technology that we have so that, for example, the
equipment could be built here in Uruguay. We want
Brazilian and local companies to develop in the region.
Q: Is there any example of this kind of arrangement?
A: A Brazilian company is setting up shop right now in
Montevideo to produce digital broadcast converter boxes.
Q: Can Brazil's proposal compete with the EU's offer to
Uruguay, such as that huge market for the production of
local software?
A: The only concrete thing the EU has actually done in
the case of Uruguay, so far, was to make a 700,000
dollar donation available for its digital TV project.
Brazil, on the other hand, is offering 600,000 dollars,
available today, to use in the field of interactivity
and the production of content for digital TV.
In addition, we have offered the Uruguayan government
more than 40 million dollars, through the Banco Nacional
de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES - Brazil's
national development bank), which would also be
immediately available as soon as the ISDB-Tb system is
adopted, to apply towards the digital TV switchover.
That is another difference with the system offered by
the Europeans, who came and held conferences, but didn't
show up again to sign a commitment.
The BNDES South America office is in Montevideo, and
those funds are available here, for whatever companies
in the sector need: to produce equipment, develop
technology, etc.
Q: Will a similar approach be followed in Paraguay,
which hasn't decided yet?
A: We've been working on this for a while in Paraguay.
President Fernando Lugo and his government already know
that all necessary conditions for adopting the
Japanese-Brazilian system are at their disposal as well.
The same is true in the case of Bolivia. If we have just
one single South American system, it would be very
important for everyone. I come from the world of
television, where I worked for years, and I remember how
difficult it was for different countries to work
together because of the different colour TV standards.
There were serious problems when it came to broadcasting
each other's TV programmes.
Q: How do you respond to criticism that with the
adoption of the Japanese system, an opportunity to
democratise access to audiovisual media was lost,
especially because of the negotiations of concessions to
the big broadcast media outlets?
A: That on the contrary to such claims, this system is
the best one in terms of democratising television,
because it has more channels.
It was precisely for that reason that Argentina adopted
it. It gave a lot of thought to how to get as many
channels as possible. |
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