What are the implications of DVB-T2 for countries where DVB-T services are already on air?

DVB-T is the most widely deployed DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) system worldwide, with over 60 countries that  have adopted or deployed the DVB-T standard and more than 200 million receivers deployed. Economies of scale have pushed receiver prices downwards constantly, with basic receivers now readily available at a retail price of less than EUR15. 

In the years ahead, in countries where DVB-T services have become well-established, regulators will be keen to achieve full Analogue Switch-Off (ASO), and in the process release valuable UHF and VHF spectrum for other purposes. The introduction of new services using DVB-T2 technology at ASO could enable, for example, the roll-out of new nationwide multiplexes offering multichannel HDTV services, or perhaps innovative new datacasting services.

The transition from DVB-T to DVB-T2 will need to be carefully managed in such countries. The DVB Project fully expects DVB-T and DVB-T2 services to co-exist side-by-side for some time to come.

What are the implications of DVB-T2 for countries planning to launch DVB-T services?

A significant number of countries, in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, are planning for the launch of DVB-T services in the next 1-5 years. These countries will benefit from the use of a mature technology that is flexible enough to meet their individual market requirements. In particular they will benefit from the existence of a well-established world market both for receivers and for head-end equipment. These conditions will enable the rapid roll-out and take up of DTT services in these countries, with access to very affordable receivers being the key factor.

However, in order to benefit from the best technical performance and the highest efficiency, countries could also transition directly to DVB-T2. The considerations for choosing DVB-T or DVB-T2 can only be judged on a case-by-case basis, but generally depend on the actual ASO date as well as on the services to be offered. DVB-T2 should be the system of choice for services with high data rate requirements like e.g. HDTV and 3DTV. In addition DVB-T2 is the ideal solution when different service characteristics need to be supported in one multiplex such as e.g. high data rate for HDTV via roof top antennas together with transmission to portable TVs with indoor antennas.

The streams can be downloaded from the following BBC FTP site:

ftp://ftp.kw.bbc.co.uk/t2refs

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