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
Broadcaster
Service
provision
Broadcast
Network
Internet / Telecom
Provider
Internet
Core
transport
Node
Headend
HFC
LMDS
Access
User
Terminal
POTS ISDN
xDSL fibre
GSM GPRS UMTS
Core Network
IP, ATM, SDH,
WDM
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
Channel
bandwidth
9 kHz
1.5 MHz
7-8 MHz
Total
bitrate
24 kbs
2.3 Mbs
24-30 Mbs
Useful
bitrate
16 kbs
1.5 Mbs
16 Mbs
UMTS
Stationary
2 Mb/s
Pedestrian
384 kb/s
Mobile
144 kb/s
1
10
100
1'000
Bit rate (kb/s)
10'000
100'000
UMTS and other radio technologies
DVB
cable
PSTN
Stationary
ISDN
xDSL
UMTS
DVB
satellite
Pedestrian
GPRS
Mobile
DAB
GSM
1
10
100
1'000
Bit rate (kb/s)
DVB
terrestrial
10'000
100'000
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
DTV
DxB
Broadcaster(s)
Mux
TX
DVB-T
Mobile terminal
Data carrousel
UMTS/UTRA
DVB or UMTS
ISP
Mobile Operator
Base
Station
Scenario 2: IP services on co-ordinated
UMTS and DVB networks
DTV
DxB
Broadcaster
Mux
TX
DVB-T
Mobile terminal
Data carrousel/
multicasting
UMTS/UTRA
DVB or UMTS
ISP
Mobile Operator
Base
Station
Scenario 3: UMTS as an interaction channel
DTV
DxB
Broadcaster
Mux
TX
DVB-T
Mobile terminal
Data carrousel/
multicasting
ITV
RC
UMTS/UTRA
DVB or UMTS
ISP
Mobile Operator
Base
Station
Scenario 4: Delivery of DVB TV over UMTS
Broadcaster
UMTS terminal
DTV
B-UMTS
BS
UMTS/UTRA
ISP
Mobile Operator
TV on demand
Base
Station
Scenario 5: UMTS network with an integrated
DVB-T downlink
Mobile terminal
DVB-T
TX
DVB-T
Data carrousel/ multicasting
UMTS/UTRA
ISP
Mobile Operator
Base
Station
Broadcast Multimedia Services

News and sport

EPG

Weather

Near video-on-demand

Special events

Games

Polling and voting

Oriented advertisment

’Tell me more’

Home shopping

Infoseek

Electronic banking

Travel information

Mobile office

Traffic information

Education

Navigation

Interactive training

Internet access

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