Portugal Telecom announces creation of DTT Forum

Portugal Telecom (PT) [Lisbon: PTC; NYSE: PT] announced the constitution of the DTT Forum yesterday, together with the open television operators. Zeinal Bava, Mário Lino as well as representatives from RTP, SIC and TVI channels were present at the signature of the protocol. The new DTT Forum ensures the access by the Portuguese to all information related to the transition from analogue television to DTT.

PT, together with the three open television operators, took the first step yesterday by communicating the process of implementation and operation of DTT. The mission of the DTT Forum is to prepare the Portuguese for the analogue switch-off, which will take place in 2011, ensures Zeinal Bava, before the date recommended by the European Commission, thus becoming the EU country with the fastest DTT implementation. The rollout of the broadcasts is scheduled for 2009 (pilot project).

The goals of this association are centred on the monitoring of the transition process and ensure that all conditions are met for analogue switch-off until 2012. It informs and communicates about the transition process from analogue to digital TV, informs about DTT’s benefits and assumes itself as DTT’s central information point and industry-users connecting link.

The DTT Forum is a non-profit independent association, open for participation by several entities as parts of the transition process. At http://tdt.telecom.pt, it is possible to understand what is and how DTT works, access Frequently Asked Questions, see the news and most recent novelties as well as the covered areas.

The beginning of the broadcasts is scheduled for April 2009. At the end of the year, PT expects 80% of the population to be already covered. The whole coverage of the territory is scheduled for December 2010.

According to Zeinal Bava, DTT’s implementation “represents a major qualitative progress, especially for 60% of the population, without pay-tv”. Once again, PT dictates and changes consumer preferences, an experience significantly enhanced with Meo’s market introduction, now extended to Digital Terrestrial Television.

Zeinal Bava also stressed the benefits of this project for society at large. DTT contributes to knowledge society, promotes technological know-how transfer and enterprise tissue renewal. At the same time, wealth is created in the country together with new jobs and direct investment, as the audiovisual industry in Portuguese language develops. PT also ensures the subsidisation of decoders to certain market segments.

Mário Lino, Minister of Public Works, Transportation and Communications, also underlined the importance of introducing DTT in Portugal, congratulating PT for the level of demand imposed upon itself in developing the project.

Which equipment is necessary for DTT?

In order to be able to watch open television in digital format, it is necessary to have a decoder connected to the TV set. Several decoder models and brands will be available on the market for sale. Some will be quite simple with just signal reception functions; others will have more advanced features such as Pause TV or Digital Recording.

There are also latest-generation television sets, already available in Portugal, prepared for DTT reception without the need of a decoder.

The above mentioned decoders and latest generation television sets must be compatible with the European DVB-T standard and with the MPEG4/H.264 compression format. Those who have pay-tv will have nothing to change.