EBU strategy for broadcast/telecommunications
convergence
Franc Kozamernik
European Broadcasting Union
Agenda
EBU in the nutshell
Broadcast vs. telecom
Possible synergies of broadcasting, telecommunications and internet
Possible scenarios
Conclusions
European Broadcasting Union - EBU
The EBU is the largest professional association of national broadcasters in the world
Founded in 1950. Merged with OIRT in 1993.
69 active members in Europe, North Africa and Middle East and further 45 associate members
Eurovision and Euroradio satellite/terrestrial networks
Programming, legal and technical activities
Broadcasting vs. Telecoms
Both broadcasting and telecommunications are important industries and both are playing their respective role in our societies.
Both are mature industries and both have been highly successful, since several decades, in terms of building up
a large consumer base,
huge turnouts,
large numbers of radio/TV receivers and telecom terminals used,
extensive infrastructures
large numbers of workers
Broadcasting vs. Telecoms
In the past, they have been evolving separately in different directions as two entirely different entities.
Since last two decades, both industries made significant progress in adopting digital technologies.
More recently, they embarked into packet-based technologies and the development of multimedia services and applications with the following common features:
increased mobility,
geographical and time independence,
individualisation and personalisation,
Interactive and on-demand services,
better technical quality and increased security
Broadcasting vs. Telecoms
It is important to understand the differences between these separate industries
Telecoms is mainly “one-to-one”
Broadcasting is mainly “one-to-many” - All users tuned to a given channel receive the same content
From the all-important perspective of users:
Both models will continue to be needed for different types of services and applications
Both models have advantages and disadvantages
Broadcasting vs. Telecoms
Economists designate free-to-air broadcasting as a “public good” because the marginal cost of extra viewers or listeners is zero
Telecoms operators get more revenue as the use of their networks increases
Broadcasters are mainly interested in content
Delivery technologies are incidental to them
Telecoms operators are mainly interested in delivery systems
Content is incidental, but will become more important as the impetus for new services
Multimedia convergence at different levels
Coretransport
Serviceprovision
UserTerminal
BroadcastNetwork Internet
Broadcaster
Internet / Telecom Provider
Core NetworkIP, ATM, SDH,
WDM
NodeNode
POTS ISDNxDSL fibre
GSM GPRS UMTS
POTS ISDNxDSL fibre
GSM GPRS UMTS
HeadendHeadend
HFCLMDSHFC
LMDS
Access
Broadcasters
Sound radio and television are the most important mass media and play a major and irreplaceable part in the lives of the people
Radio is simple, ubiquitous, free service, non-expensive receivers, mobile and portable, user-friendly, informative and trusted medium
Television is more sophisticated, used in the home/family, provides entertainment, information and education
Both radio and TV are in the process of radical changes and move towards digitisation and multimedia
Content
The choice of TV services available to the average consumer has increased dramatically, but expenditure on new programmes has not kept pace with this expansion
Traditional broadcast services (i.e. one-to-many & one-way) will continue to be important because mass audiences are required to cover the costs of high quality content production
Broadcasters will also embrace the opportunities offered by multimedia services and applications, including “interactive” and “on-demand” services
Users will transform themselves from passive consumers to active creators able to choose the content and presentation to their liking
Broadcast Delivery
Broadcasters (content providers) will probably become agnostic about delivery systems
The existing analogue terrestrial transmissions will remain attractive because they are almost universally available
Radio broadcasters can choose from:
AM
FM
DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting)
Internet & its successors
TV Delivery Systems
TV broadcasters will choose from:
analogue terrestrial
analogue satellite
digital satellite (DVB-S)
digital terrestrial (DVB-T)
digital cable (DVB-C)
digital MMDS (DVB-MC & DVB-MS)
Internet and its successors
UMTS or GPRS
broadband radio services (BRAN, MBS)
Digital Audio Broadcasting - DAB
Eureka 147 DAB system, first shown publicly in 1988 in Geneva Recommended by ITU-R as a a worldwide standard
Terrestrial system using OFDM modulation, very robust, 1.5 Mbs channel, audio and data (multimedia) services
300 million people in 25 countries worldwide are within DAB reach
Coverage in the UK is 79% of the population
509 different DAB services are available – 225 PSB, 284 CS
25 manufacturers are making 16 different types of consumer products – car, home, portable radios and PC cards
Prices to fall by 50% or more (to £99) by end of 2001!
Digital Video Broadcasting - DVB
Family of DVB standards based on ISO MPEG-2 – Satellite, Cable, Terrestrial and MMDS
De facto worldwide standard, flexible, robust, different bit rates and channels
Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) paves the way to multimedia
7 million BSkyB and 1 million OnDigital set-top-boxes in the UK
In UK, STB are given away for free – different business model than for DAB
Terrestrial DVB is bogged down by the spectrum scarcity in Europe
EBU Statement on “DAB versus DVB-T”
DAB is to serve radio communities
DVB-T is to serve television communities
Similar technologies (OFDM)
Different emphasis but complementary systems
Both are needed and both should be deployed
DVB-T cannot replace DAB, even not in a longer term
DVB-T is able to carry radio services but this may represent only a minority market
Both systems will be used for mobile Multimedia in future
Digital radio Mondiale - DRM
DRM is being developed to replace analogue LW, MF and SW radio below 30 MHz
Designed as a flexible system able to overcome adverse propagation conditions – deep and long fades, echoes and multipath
A variety of audio and channel coding options and modulation schemes to copy with different channel bandwidth requirements
Broadcasting to Mobile and Portable terminals
DRM DAB DVB-T
Channelbandwidth
9 kHz 1.5 MHz 7-8 MHz
Totalbitrate
24 kbs 2.3 Mbs 24-30 Mbs
Usefulbitrate
16 kbs 1.5 Mbs 16 Mbs
1 10 100 1'000 10'000 100'000
UMTS
Stationary
Pedestrian
Mobile
Bit rate (kb/s)
144 kb/s
384 kb/s
2 Mb/s
UMTS and other radio technologies
1 10 100 1'000 10'000 100'000
Stationary
Pedestrian
Mobile
Bit rate (kb/s)
GSM
DVBsatellite
DVBterrestrialDAB
UMTS
PSTN
ISDNxDSL
DVBcable
GPRS
Analogue-to-digital transition
Digital technology must be significantly “better” in any respect than analogue radio for all players, especially for consumers
An agreed introduction strategy and concerted/synchronous efforts of all major players at a national level
public service and commercial broadcasters
new content providers
receiver/transmitter/IC manufacturers
network operators
spectrum regulators
retailers
users: customer awareness
Public and governmental support is absolutely needed
A national matter
Each and every country in Europe has very specific economic, cultural and media regulation situation
Broadcasting (and electronic media) is a matter of national states or even regions (e.g. Germany)
Any implementation plan and analogue switch-off strategy should take into account national broadcasting diversities and national priorities
International organisations and associations such as EBU are valuable but cannot replace national efforts and decisions. They should however provide common technology standards, implementation guidelines, lobbying, promotion and advice
Governmental decision
Digital may take several years to reach the level of the present analogue broadcasting
Transition to digital may be much slower than expected unless there is a concerted effort at a a national level
Broadcasting will ultimately become digital, but at what stage the analogue stations may be withdrawn?
As the transition is a costly exercise, small and commercial stations may remain on analogue for very long
A governmental announcement of the analogue withdrawal deadline at an early stage would have a positive effect
Analogue Switch-Off
A timely announcement of Analogue Switch-Off (ASO) by the national government will have the following advantages:
A CLEAR SIGNAL TO ALL PLAYERS about the intentions of the government and will accelerate A-D transition
NETWORK PROVIDERS - will reduce transmission cost which is now doubled due to simulcasting in analogue and digital. More money will be available for the completion of terrestrial networks
ADMINISTRATIONS/REGULATORS - will be able to use parts of the analogue spectrum soon after ASO
CUSTOMERS - will be encouraged to purchase digital STBs as of now
MANUFACTURERS - will sell more digital products and the prices would go gradually down, diversity of receivers will increase
Interactive Multimedia Broadcasting
LEVEL 1: LOCAL INTERACTIVITY - storage in the terminal (e.g. TV Anytime)
LEVEL 2: ONE-WAY RETURN CHANNEL
LEVEL 3: TWO-WAY INTERACTIVE CHANNEL
*
LEVEL 1 Interactive Broadcasting
No return link needed
Internal storage device in the user terminal to allow:
linear programmes to be consumed in a non-linear manner (e.g. a news bulletin)
users to “order” a programme to be recorded by a single click during a trailer
intelligent agents to record programmes that they “think” you might want to listen to
sophisticated interactive multimedia information services, continuously up-dated and available instantly to consumers
automatic indexing of recorded programmes
Examples: TV Anytime Project, TiVo
LEVEL 2 Interactive Broadcasting
Interactive Broadcasts can be further enhanced by the use of a narrow-band return channel (e.g. GSM, GPRS, UMTS, Internet)
DAB or DVB-T can be used as forward transport media in connection with return channel
Return channel connects the end user with the content originator:
content provider
service provider
multiplex provider
Supplementary individually addressed traffic
Possibility for secure encryption or charging mechanisms
LEVEL 3 Interactive Broadcasting
LEVEL 3 allows for PERSONAL BROADCASTING
DAB or DVB-T used as transport medium for broadcast and individually addressed traffic in connection with an interactive channel (e. g. PSTN, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, Internet)
Highly assymetric services
Requires roaming/handover network functionalities
Requires secure encryption and charging mechanisms
A WorldDAB project “DAB/Mobile” using SIM and Java card for transactions will start in the autumn
Joint UMTS Forum / DVB Forum group (see TM 2466)
Scenario 1: Integration at the terminal level
Broadcaster(s) MuxDxB
TXMobile terminal
Base
StationMobile OperatorISP
DTV
Data carrousel
DVB or UMTS
DVB-T
UMTS/UTRA
Scenario 2: IP services on co-ordinated UMTS and DVB networks
Broadcaster MuxDxB
TXMobile terminal
Base
StationMobile OperatorISP
DTV
Data carrousel/ multicasting
DVB or UMTS
DVB-T
UMTS/UTRA
Scenario 3: UMTS as an interaction channel
Broadcaster MuxDxB
TXMobile terminal
Base
StationMobile OperatorISP
DTV
Data carrousel/ multicasting
DVB or UMTS
DVB-T
UMTS/UTRA
ITV RC
Scenario 4: Delivery of DVB TV over UMTS
Broadcaster
UMTS terminal
Base StationMobile OperatorISP
UMTS/UTRA
DTV B-UMTS BS
TV on demand
Scenario 5: UMTS network with an integrated DVB-T downlink
Mobile terminal
Base StationMobile OperatorISP
UMTS/UTRA
DVB-T TX
Data carrousel/ multicasting
DVB-T
Broadcast Multimedia Services
News and sport
Weather
Special events
Polling and voting
’Tell me more’
Infoseek
Travel information
Traffic information
Navigation
Internet access
EPG
Near video-on-demand
Games
Oriented advertisment
Home shopping
Electronic banking
Mobile office
Education
Interactive training
Handicap support
IP over broadcast channels
DAB and DVB broadcast channels have relatively large bandwidth but for regulatory reasons only a small portion (typically, less than 20%) can be used for data services such as IP multimedia
Access to web pages via broadcast channels is fast and reliable
Broadcasters may adopt a concept of a “Walled garden”:
Pre-selection of Web pages limits the usefulness of this service compared with full Internet access. Broadcaster decides on a selection of “best” sites and transmits the same sites to all customers
Customers can browse locally between the sites chosen by the broadcaster.
Interaction channel is provided by a telecommunication channel
Push Technology
Push technology is similar to broadcasting - “one to many”
Multimedia files are pushed from a broadcaster as e-mails to the subscriber computers (typically several hundreds only)
different from broadcasting is that users can only receive their “narrowcast” information according to their individual “user profile”
“Push” services delivered over the Internet allow users to specify their interests:
news items about specific subjects, share prices for a particular company, etc.
The user’s computer periodically checks if any relevant new information is available, and downloads it for display
The number of subscribers could increase if “dial-up” connections are replaced by “fast Internet” broadcast channels
Webcasting
Broadcasting over the internet - complementary to conventional over-air broadcasting
Continuous live streaming
On demand streaming
On demand downloading
Global access, full interactivity, personal filters, niche themes, audience monitoring
Poor technical quality, but HOW POOR ?
Compression schemes
Network bandwidth, packet loss, jitter
Possible areas of common interest
Common receiver/terminal (human-machine interface)
Portable/personal terminal (possibly integrated with a PDA)
Common API protocols, interfaces and metadata
Common networks and roaming strategies
Common billing/security/transactional models
Common IP technology for multimedia
Conclusion
There are opportunities for broadcast and telecommunications to work together
Synergy of the two platforms can strengthen both and enable new services and applications to develop
UMTS should preferably be used for individual communication
Broadcast channels are suited for high bitrate media distribution to large audiences
Several scenarios for practical cooperation are possible
Joint development and market activities are necessary to futher the business opportunities.
Conclusion In future broadcasters will probably become agnostic about delivery
systems - they will use any broadcast or non-broadcast channel if it offers clear advantages for their audiences
Broadcasters will use a variety of receiver terminals to reach their audiences
Broadcasters will focus on
the provision of rich content,
increase diversity of programme choice
develop attractive data/multimedia applications
interactive broadcasting services