How to go for an ether dividend in a television community dominated by cable?
Erik DejongheMICTOctober 2008
Flanders’ first ether dividend
� 1952 - …: Foreign transmitters start beaming their signals into Flanders� France: Reaching their ‘Brothers in Language’ and
convincing ‘les Flamands’ for 819 lines� The Netherlands: Gaining transborder audience� Germany: Serving the lost ‘Eastern Cantons’� England: English football welcomed by vacationists in
Ostend � Complex antenna’s on Flemish roofs� The first ether dividend for Flanders:
Six (incl. television from Wallonia)for the price of One
The Conquest of the Flemish Television Gateway
� 1960 - …: Cable operators � obliterate antenna cost, � prevent the ‘Friday Night Storm Disaster’, � expand program choice and � improve signal quality
(sounds like DTV in 2000…) � 1989: Cable reaches penetration of 90% in Flanders …
Penetration television technologies in Flanders
The Conquest of the Flemish Television Gateway
� 1960 - …: Cable operators � obliterate antenna cost, � prevent the ‘Friday Night Storm Disaster’, � expand program choice and � improve signal quality
(sounds like DTV in 2000…) � 1989: Cable reaches penetration of 90% in Flanders, rules
the television landscape and enables VTM to become a successful ‘transmitterless broadcaster’
� 2006: Antenna users are (conceivably) reduced to nomads, lonely viewers in secondary locations, rural hermits or members of a religious-like society
Flanders’ first digital dividend
� 1996: Flemish Cable operators expand their bandwidth beyond the need for analogue channels and adapt networks for digital speech and broadband internet assess (sounds like triple play)
� Fierce competition with Belgacom leads to cheaperinterzonal calls (sounds like VoIP) and fast (though not cheap) internet access
� Flanders digital dividend is materialized by using excess digital bandwidth for new, demand driven applications ( a lesson to remember?)
A digital ether dividend for Flanders?A (useful) view from a pessimist
� DVB-T will remain limited to the present offering (Flanders’best kept secret), because there is no market potential for the use of roof antennas
� DVB-H will be discussed, discussed and discussed, but mobile service operators, commercial broadcasters and network operators will hesitate to launch a ‘full coverageservice’
� Alternative services will not (cannot) be considered
�From November 3rd onwards, the Flemish ether will be the quietest spot in the universe
�No digital ether dividend
A digital ether dividend for Flanders?A (dangerous) view from a (born) optimist
� DVB-T will find its market as a service for movable, secondary viewing locations, bundled with existing DTV offerings (Hybrid IPTV? Local retransmission of CaTV)
� DVB-H will be launched in several ‘Living Labs’, together with alternative services and technologies to find out:� What kind of mobile visual entertainment the consumer
really wants (which content on which device?)� What kind of new mobile services can be launched on
existing mobile platforms (in cars, on iPods, on smartphones, on PPS, on laptops…)
� What role mobile services can play in non-mobilesituations
A digital ether dividend for Flanders?A (dangerous) view from a (born) optimist
� DVB-T will find its market as a service for movable, secondary viewing locations, bundled with existing DTV offerings (Hybrid IPTV? Local retransmission of CaTV)
� DVB-H will be launched in several ‘Living Labs’, together with alternative services and technologies
�From November 3rd onwards, the Flemish ether will be the most interesting spot in Europe to test new applications and business concepts
� A digital knowledge dividend
Why are we optimistic at MICT?
(but please, do not insist...)
• Because Flanders has the time (up until 2011)• Because Flanders has the skills (academic talent and business know-how)• Because Flanders has, with IBBT, the right structure to launch research project in an efficient and effective way
Thank You!