Japan Completed Analog Switch Off in Terrestrial Television Broadcasting

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Japan Completed Analog Switch Off in Terrestrial Television Broadcasting"

Jessica Williams
6 years ago
Views:

1 Please feel free to use articles in this publication, with proper credits. Japan Completed Analog Switch Off in Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Successfully In Japan, the government, broadcasters, manufacturers, and many stakeholders have taken dedicated efforts to achieve the complete digitalization of terrestrial television broadcasting. ISDB-T, the Japanese standard for digital terrestrial television broadcasting, is the best of such technology, invented thanks to the national tendency of cooperation for solving issues and of seeking the newest useful functions for electrical appliances. ISDB-T enables sophisticated HDTV, easy receiving in any conditions (e.g. wide cover area, anti-radio-disturbance, etc.), and prompt transmission of emergency information in disasters. These benefits have been spread deeply to citizens all over the country. In addition, mobile broadcasting called "One-Seg" has been bringing a new viewing experience without additional cost, while the other digital TV standards require additional cost. By sharing this attractiveness and advantage fully, Japan was able to win trust in digital television broadcasting among citizens. Japan has suffered serious damage from the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami on 11th March, just before the Analog Switch Off (ASO). But now we are striving to reconstruct with kind help and friendship from all over the world and with an unbeatable national effort ("Ganbaro, Nippon!!"). During the disaster, many lives were saved by informing each person of the tsunami alert in advance through One-Seg. Only ISDB-T provides One-Seg, and for this reason, ISDB-T is the standard trusted by citizens, and the digitalization of terrestrial television broadcasting in Japan succeeded without changing the initial target date. Furthermore, we can guarantee that the Japanese standard will lead to success in the upcoming digitalization of terrestrial television broadcasting for countries that have adopted ISDB-T. We hope that countries all over the world can share in the Japanese success by adopting ISDB-T. TOPIC CONTENTS Japan Completed Analog Switch Off in Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Successfully... 1 STATISTICS Quarterly Data on Telecommunications Service Contract Numbers and Market Share Published (FY 2010 Q4 (End of March 2011))... 4 TOPIC Survey Results concerning Actual Industrial Structure of Mobile Content... 5 International Policy Division, Global ICT Strategy Bureau Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) 1-2, Kasumigaseki 2-chome, Chiyodaku, Tokyo , Japan Fax: Tel: We welcome your comments via: in/eng/contact.html Japan has succeeded in the complete digitalization of terrestrial television broadcasting by terminating analog broadcasting on Sunday, 24th July, 2011, (except in some regions afflicted by the earthquake/tsunami damage). Digitalization for terrestrial television broadcasting is a worldwide trend. In Japan, more than 120 million people, almost the entire population, can watch television via terrestrial broadcasting. Japan is the first country in the world to succeed in an analog switch off without confusion in such a large-scale. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) 1 MIC Communications News is available at: in/eng/newsletter.html Presentation materials of MIC are available at: in/eng/presentation.html distribution of this newsletter is possible if desired.

2 would like to share its success tips for the other countries planning ASO in the near future as shown below: Success Tip 1: Preparation of Consultation offices close to citizens (working together with the government, broadcasters, manufacturers and electricians) Television broadcasting is a universal service and an important infrastructure for most of the people to rely on as an information source. Therefore, it is indispensable to care for the people who are not familiar with digital technology, especially elderly people and people without enough income. The MIC put in place a total of 51 support centers for digital terrestrial viewers, called "Digi-Suppo," in cooperation with broadcasters, manufactures and electricians in every prefecture to enable easy access and the asking of relevant questions. In addition, especially just before the ASO, temporary Q&A booths to support people who had not switched to digital broadcasting yet were set up widely under cooperation with local governments. A lot of volunteers also supported by calling elderly people to confirm whether they had switched to digitalization. This management structure consisting of the government, broadcasters, manufacturers, retailers and electricians was a key factor leading to the success of TV digitalization. Success Tip 2: Implementation of measures along with a schedule and target Regarding transmission network preparation, the schedule for starting digital broadcasting in each region was publicly announced (called the "master plan"). The master plan indicates that digital broadcasting would start in 3 metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka) by 2003 and in mid-size cities by Also the starting dates for the other regions were also indicated in the plan. This schedule was announced in each region respectively. After the construction of most of the transmission stations, the MIC returned its attention to fitting out an environment for receiving digital broadcasting waves from the point of view of the citizens. The Digi-Suppos helped citizens to solve any difficulties in their receiving system, including through consultations on a shared receiving system in areas where broadcast signals are blocked by mountains or hills or apartment complexes. In the border area of analog broadcasting coverage, where the received signal level is very weak, a cliff effect might have occurred. Therefore, in such areas, additional measures were taken, such as newly installing shared receiving facilities or replacing antennas to high-gain antennas. Furthermore, as a safety network for the areas where these measures could not be delivered before the ASO, the MIC and broadcasters delivered satellite networks as a temporary measure to broadcast terrestrial TV programs. Success Tip 3: Measures for the spread of digital receivers By standardizing the minimum functional requirements for set-top boxes (STBs) along with the technology development efforts of manufacturers, digital television and STB prices have steadily become cheaper, contributing to the spread of digital receivers as a result. In addition, the government implemented an incentive 2 program for consumers to purchase and switch to digital televisions (called the "eco-point" program), accelerating digital receiver diffusion. As a result, there were 25 million shipments of flat panel televisions in 2010 (in the first year of digitalization, there were 10 million shipments). In particular, the amount of sales in November is more than 5 times the amount of November 2009 due to announcing the 50% reduction of eco-points in advance. As for a safety network for the people who had not prepared a digital receiver yet, STBs have been distributed for free to low income households since Success Tip 4: Public announcements, including statistical results of the digital spread rate and the ASO notification through the analog broadcasting program The government shared statistical results with viewers via the media, including the results of a survey on the household digital receiver spread rate and a survey on viewer's awareness of the timing of the ASO. This showed viewers that digitalization was making steady progress. Regarding the preparation of an environment in which all citizens can receive digital broadcasting waves, the status of digitalization using shared receiving systems and in apartment complexes was published to publicize the progress of digitalization. On the other hand, broadcasters notified viewers that analog programs would end on 24th July through all channels broadcasting the same promotion program at the same time (called a "soft test"). The promotion program was in the letter-box format and the word "analog" and the telephone number of the call center were

3 indicated on the screen viewers realized that they were now watching an analog program. Suzu city (with approx. 10 thousand households) in Ishikawa prefecture switched off analog broadcasting one year prior to the nationwide ASO. Finally the results of these invaluable experiences contributed to the preparation for the nationwide ASO. From 1st July 2011, broadcasters inserted a superimposed image showing the days remaining until the day of the analog switch off on the screen in their analog programs as a final effort to avoid having unprepared households due to insufficient awareness raising. These measures largely contributed to preventing confusion when analog television broadcasting was switched off successfully. viewing systems with huge screens. These measurements have created nationwide understanding of and familiarity forward "digitalization of Terrestrial Television Broadcasting" as the animal mascot goods were great hits! Success Tip 5: Spread of "digitalization of Terrestrial Television Broadcasting" to citizens by using characters and distinguished persons (Media strategy) Industry side developed many campaigns and commercials by using an animal mascot, a famous entertainer as a symbolic of promotion and popular newsreaders as ambassadors of promotion. In addition, various generations recognized "digitalization of Terrestrial Television Broadcasting" through distinguished entertainers corresponding to the same generation, who were named as a cheering party and they participated in a lot of campaigns. Furthermore, promotional clips appealed to fans at professional baseball/football stadiums and horse racing tracks using public 3

4 Quarterly Data on Telecommunications Service Contract Numbers and Market Share Published (FY 2010 Q4 (End of March 2011)) This is to announce that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has compiled a report on telecommunications service contract numbers and market share in FY 2010 Q4 (end of March 2011) as per the enclosed document, based on reports from telecommunications carriers in accordance with provisions in the Telecommunications Business Report Regulations (1988 Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Order No. 46)(*1). Main points: 1. Fixed communications (1) The number of subscription telephone contracts (NTT East and West subscription telephones, as well as special line, 0ABJ-IP and CATV telephones) continues to be flat, now standing at million (up 0.03% from the The subscription telephone market share of NTT East and West also continues to decrease, now standing at 80.9% (down 0.5 points from the previous (2) The number of IP telephone numbers continues to increase, now standing at million (up 2.8% from the Among these, the number of 0ABJ-IP telephone numbers continues to increase and now stands at 17.9 million (up 5.1% from the In terms of the share of the number of 0ABJ-IP telephone numbers, NTT East and West decreased to 66.7% (down 0.6 points from the previous term) while KDDI increased to 16.1% (up 0.1 points over the Also, the number of 050-IP telephone numbers continues to decrease and now stands at 7.76 million (down 2.1% from the In terms of the share of the number of 050-IP telephone numbers, NTT Communications rose to 37.9% (up 0.8 points from the previous term) while Softbank BB fell to 40.8% (down 0.9 points from the 2. Mobile communications The number of mobile communications contracts continues to increase, now standing at million (up 1.3% over the There was little change in terms of the share of mobile phone and PHS contracts, with NTT DoCoMo having 47.1% (down 0.3 points from the previous term) and KDDI 26.8% (down 0.1 points from the previous term), although Softbank Mobile rose to 20.4% (up 0.4 points from the The number of subscribers to MVNO contracts is 3.59 million. 3. Internet connections (1) The number of broadband service contracts continues to increase, now standing at million (up 1.1% from the (2) The numbers of 3.9G mobile telephone packet transfer communication service contracts is drastically increasing,having risen to 26,000 (20 times more than in the (3) The number of BWA contracts is drastically increasing,having risen to 811,000 (up 53% from the (4) The number of FTTH contracts continues to increase, now standing at million 4 (up 2.3% from the There was little change in FTTH market share, with NTT East and West falling slightly to 74.4% (down 0.1 points from the previous term), electrical power system businesses rising slightly to 9.1% (up 0.1 points from the previous term), and KDDI's market share rising to 8.8% (up 0.2 points from the previous (5) The number of DSL contracts continues to decrease, falling to million (down 4.5% from the There was little change in market share, with leader Softbank BB having 38.4% (up 0.1 points from the previous term) and NTT East and West having 34.9% (down 0.1 points from the previous (6) The number of FTTH contracts across all prefectures is increasing, while in all prefectures the number of DSL contracts is decreasing. Please note that the reference materials contain details of broadband service contract numbers classified by prefecture. *1 The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has been evaluating competition in the telecommunications business since FY 2003, publishing quarterly data on the status of competition based on intelligence gathered from businesses.

5 Survey Results concerning Actual Industrial Structure of Mobile Content The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has been surveying trends in the rapidly expanding mobile business market since 2003, against a backdrop of recent widespread use of mobile phones, increased speed and functionality of terminals, changes to communication fee structures, and so on. Survey results from 2010 have now been compiled and are published herein. 1. Survey results In 2010, the mobile business market was worth trillion yen, an increase of billion yen (8.8%) over the previous year. The mobile content market (including only feature phones) was worth billion yen, an increase of 94 billion yen (17%) over the previous year.(just for reference, the mobile content market of smart phones was worth 12.3 billion yen.) The mobile commerce market was worth trillion yen, an increase of 40.4 billion yen (4.2%) over the previous year. and Communications (MIC) commissioned the Mobile Content Forum (MCF) to conduct this survey. ( *2 About the Mobile Content Forum (MCF) Established in 1999 to stimulate the mobile content environment, with participation from businesses such as telecommunications carriers, manufacturers, content providers, etc., and became a general incorporated association in (Number of members as of June 2011: 257) 2. Calculation methods (1) Mobile content market Estimated using results obtained from documents published by mobile phone businesses, as well as from data and questionnaire surveys received from major businesses. (2) Mobile commerce market Estimated using the base of results from hearings with major trade associations active in the communications sales market using mobile sites. 3. Survey commission The Ministry of Internal Affairs 5

International Affairs Department, Telecommunications Bureau

International Affairs Department, Bureau Biweekly Newsletter of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Japan Vol. 17 No. 62 May July 12, 7, 2006 ISSN 1349-7987 Please feel free to use