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!