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Who's Afraid of digital television? Meeting blogger

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Who's Afraid of digital television?
With new technology, millions of Argentines will no longer be hostage to the cable, monopolized by the Clarin group.

By Daniel Cecchini and Mark Cittadini
The implementation of Digital Terrestrial Television and the recently announced large investments in the area by the Government opened a new era in telecommunications in Argentina. It also means drawing a new map in the television market, which will end with the quasi-monopolistic position of the groups that now account for cable business, where Clarín is dominant.

The possibilities of this new reality are obvious. As announced by Planning Minister Julio De Vido, as part of the II International Forum on Digital TV made in Buenos Aires this week, the official target is to reach 75% of the country this year and all over Argentina in 2012. The official added that "before the end of the month will be delivered free receptors 450 000 to capture the digital signal and another 300 thousand will be awarded next month, to reach over 1,200,000 by the end of the year."

Moreover, the Ministry of Industry who heads Deborah Giorgi estimated that Digital TV will generate about 560 thousand jobs in the country, directly or indirectly from qualified personnel for the manufacturing of TV adapters (set- top box) to employees of the news channels were created from the system implementation.
The future is here. The launch of digital terrestrial television is the result of a long process in which each step required to face, from the beginning, strong pressure from the Grupo Clarin and its allies.

The Argentina-elected after proving that is widely accepted in the world, the Japanese standard in Brazilian adaptation (ISDB-T). This rule will allow transmission through the same airwaves broadcast several channels of high quality picture and not just one as in the current analog system. The pressure of the monopoly for the adoption of the U.S. standard was high due to several reasons. On the one hand, art acquired in recent years the latter compatible equipment. With the election of the Japanese standard will double your investment.

But the reasons are deeper. Clarín always advocated for the American standard (ATSC) because it is a standard high definition and not compression. The ATSC signal allows for each television channel high definition and digital definition not five, as the Japanese version. Within the company explained the strategy: "Thus, it would protect the signal power on channel 13 because the scanning frequency would cause of 13 can also be subdivided into five or even 10 channels. The big question is: in whose hands will be the five or ten channels? Everything indicates that one or two would be left by the investment group before and the others would be re-tendered. "

But it is clear that the worst that can happen to Clarín is that the state allow, through digitization and segmentation of the signals corresponding to the frequencies of air, the public can have access to between 20 and 50 channels open, digital, good quality and free.
No wonder: the major source of income of multimedia is the cable business, which operates in a quasi-monopolistic in major urban centers. With nearly 7 million people through monthly payments of around 100 pesos, worth billions of dollars a year. The free nature of Digital TV, plus the loss of football rights of First Division, will hurt the market by a percentage which is now estimated within the Group. The most optimistic projections for the company speak of a decline in the first string of suburbs, where the greatest concentration of population and the epicenter of the first stage in the development of digital TV, 20%. There, with one million subscribers to multichannel and Cablevision, the losses would 5 million and a half dollars a month. But that's just the beginning. To keep customers, they must reinvest in technology, something they were not used because the lack of competition made it necessary.

Here, some call attention to breaches of the commitments of investment holding. Sources close to warn: "There are fewer than 300 thousand users digitized. Digitization made it to high definition set-top box with (adapters) old, bought from a subsidiary of Motorola. Used and imported goods could pass with the excuse that it is not strictly for sale, as they deliver them on loan. But the user are paid. "

Others go further and imagine how difficult it will sell the Internet to those no longer cable customer.
A story with many traps. This is not the first time the Clarín Group conspires to information and entertainment leaving the market free. It should be a brief tour of the history of cable television to understand the consequences of their concentration in few hands. Its development is associated with lack of state policy for the entire country can watch TV in the open. Since Channel 7 began broadcasting with an antenna on the terrace of the Ministry of Social Welfare Policy expansion always focused on major urban centers. Content production inside and borders, unlike our neighboring countries, was low or absent in several periods of the second half of the twentieth century. That's why many towns developed in the mid-60s, closed circuit television to convey in these populations. Down some programming began in Buenos Aires or broadcast movies, with very low cost to residents. That was the genesis of a system for your communication within grew and after the middle of '80, business north of the capital and its suburbs were the business.

When the cable took massive size (La Argentina became the number one in the world in penetration, and is now ranked 3 with almost 60% of the population paid), entered the major market media. But there was something for everything to be perfect: no one could see the air television, even in big cities. There had always been the possibility, especially in capital and the GBA-to see the air channels and the old antenna that was considered a strong deficit for the introduction of cable policy. In the first half of the '90s, television companies, possess the vast majority of cable, power down the transmitter so that every time you look worse the air. To do that took refuge in a legal vacuum because the Broadcasting Act powers talked about the maximum that could have the TV and radio transmitters to invade not part of the spectrum but not for them to mandatory minimum power.

The perverse is that the cable was created to democratize communication private efforts and then becomes a weapon in concentrated industries that use it as a commercial vehicle first, destroying the television using its dominant position in the production of content and distribution as a form of political pressure.
The medium is the message. With the advent of DTT, the problem for Clarín is that little can be done openly to oppose something that is happening around the world. In Europe and the United States has already produced what is called the "analog switch off, Brazil will begin making digital TVs that do not need the adapter called set-top box. In a Digital Television Forum-similar to that developed in Buenos Aires-made in Mexico a few days ago, the director of the Commission's Telecommunications Market in Spain, José Pascual González Rodríguez said: "The transition from analog to digital television has revitalized the English electronic industry, as from the date that the blackout was set so far benefited over 10 000 companies, generating over 40 thousand jobs, including in the context of crisis. "

But also explained that his country also had resistance from network television.
"It is normal that the broadcasters do not want change because they have to invest more and may generate uncertainty, but they should know that if things are done fairly well will get more profits," he said.

Clarín To defend their interests public can only use weak arguments. In early April, was held in the city of Rosario a meeting of businessmen of the cable market was primarily used to whip the Government by the Law on Audiovisual Communication Services. But there was also space for digital TV. There Henoch Aguiar, former secretary of the National Telecommunications and one of the intellectual swords Group, addressed the issue stating that "the State must encourage private initiative and not destroy it." But he went further:

"The first question is: What is the legal underpinning of this venture? If you look at all broadcasting laws and competition, there is no support for the state to private enterprises that already have done, and can only have an intention ... will only create a monopoly of state capacity. " It is striking how Aguiar argument is related to deregulation mandated by the State Reform Act of Menem. "They can not do anything of surface oppose these measures, they seek to smear the court," say about Clarin. It is notable that this week, while De Vido launched the digital TV Land, the top of Clarín and news of art, dealing with an alleged case of bribery and tried to splash the Ministry Federal Planning, without any proof or even a convincing indication. The front page of Clarin said Tuesday, setting the suspicion: "Sales to Venezuela: De Vido decided who got paid." But the drop clarified that "it was legal, but allowed arbitrary." On Thursday, also at the top, former vice governor of Santa Cruz Edward Arnold complained: "In business with Venezuela, no doubt paid bribes." But then the note could read:

- Heard in Venezuela that will talk about fees or money?

-No. Not that.

If the discussion of Law Services Audiovisual Communication stripped the Group's interests, the implementation of digital television leads them to shift its attacks to the Government at the prospect of losing further concentrated markets and thus fail to win millions of dollars a month.