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NEWS & VIEWSNovember 2014 5
www.apb-news.com | NOVEMBER 2014 | VOLUME 31 | ISSUE 11
Spectrum for IMT under-utilised
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KUALA LUMPUR – Metropolitan TV (8TV), Primeworks Studios and ntv7, divisions of Malaysian media group Media Prima, have entered into an agreement to co-produce two TV series with Japan’s Nippon TV, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and Sumitomo Corporation.
The deal will see Primeworks Studios, Nippon TV and Sumitomo Corporation producing Welcome To The Railworld Japan — a Japa-nese version of the 2010 Malaysian TV series Welcome To The Railworld — and is scheduled to air on 8TV before this year-end.
Meanwhile, Primeworks Stu-dios, ntv7 and TBS are commencing the production of Find the Wasabi! this month, with TBS heading the production of a series of variety-game show supported by Prime-works Studios.
Datuk Kamal Khalid, COO, Shared Services Group at Media Prima, said: “In Primeworks Studios, we are passionate about the plan formats, and we are honoured to format Welcome to the Rail World to be adapted to the unique Japa-nese perspective.”
NEWS & VIEWS 6 CREATION 14 MANAGEMENT 18 DISTRIBUTION 22
CASBAA urges HK to stop copyright delaysHONG KONG – Asia-Pacific pay-TV industry trade body CASBAA has called on the Hong Kong legislature to end a decade of delays and pass amendments to Hong Kong’s copyright law to give content creators and owners the right to authorise electronic dissemination of their content.CASBAA chief policy officer John Mederios also urged the govern-ment to restore balance and provide a “new breath of life” to Hong Kong’s creative industries.
NTT Plala begins 4K servicesTOKYO – Japanese Internet service provider NTT Plala has jumped on the country’s 4K band-wagon. Since October 27 this year, NTT Plala has started its 4K UHD broadcast streaming services. Japan is expected to have at least two UHD channels on air by the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.
BBC to charge for premium content? LONDON – British public service broadcaster is considering charg-ing viewers for niche or premium programming. According to Rona Fairhead, the new chairwoman of the BBC Trust, the BBC’s core funding will continue to come from annual licence fees, but other sources of funding must also be examined.
W O R L D I N B R I E F
26X-PLATFORM
by shawn liew
LICHTENAU – Spectrum already allocated for IMT (Inter national Mobile Telecommunications) services has not been fully utilised, and efforts need to be put in place to address this issue before new spectrum bands are identified for IMT services.
According to a study re-cently released by Germany’s LS telcom, less than two-thirds of the spectrum that should have been made available for IMT services is licensed, while less than half of that which could be made available is licensed.
In every country exam-ined in the study, LS telcom found potential scope for mak-ing more spectrum — at least 150MHz and in many cases “significantly more” — avail-able for IMT services without
additional allocations. Evidence from a number of
regulators also indicated that only 70%-80% of spectrum licensed to mobile operators today is actually deployed. LS telcom is a worldwide leader in the provision of integrated spectrum management systems and regularly provides consulta-tion for frequency regulatory authorities, network operators and infrastructure providers.
With the proliferation of mobile devices and the propen-sity for more and more multi-media content to be consumed on these devices, the continuing argument put forth by mobile operators is that, in order to deliver the capacity to meet the growth in demand for data services, more spectrum needs
Malaysian TV series Welcome To The Railworld has been adapted into a Japanese version.
SEOUL – South Korean telecoms operator SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics have announced the suc-cessful development of the companies’ new ‘True Real Time Mobile Streaming’ technology through a “world’s first” demonstration over a commercial LTE network.
According to the companies, the new technology, when applied with the next-generation media trans-port standard MPEG Media Transport (MMT), improves live mobile streaming experience for smartphone and tablet users by “significantly reducing latency”.
MMT, specified as ISO/IEC 23008-1 (MPEG-H Part 1), is a digital container standard under development by Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and which is expected to support the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) standard.
By successfully demonstrating True Real Time Mobile Streaming technology with Btv Mobile, SK Telecom’s mobile IPTV service, SK Telecom and
M’sia, Japan in joint-production Railworld deals
S Korea makes mobile-streaming breakthrough
Spectrum licensed to mobile operators today is not fully deployed.
p01-09_nv.wotv.1114.indd 5 28/10/14 11:28 AM
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EDITORIALdeputy editorShawn Liew, [email protected] editorMillette Manalo-Burgos, [email protected] editor (technology)Karl K Rossiter, [email protected] Arifin Abdul Hafiz, [email protected]
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2 EDITORIAL
Javad MottaghiSecretary-General
Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
Philip LavenChairmanThe DVB Project
Yeo Chun Cheng CIO & Director - Broadcast & MusicMedia Development Authority of Singapore
Javad MottaghiSecretary-GeneralAsia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
Philip LavenChairman
The DVB Project
Angeline Poh Assistant Chief
Executive (Industry)Media Development
Authority of Singapore
APB PANELLISTS
As the saying goes, too much of a good thing can often turn out to be a bad thing. Or, perhaps it is simply a question of which side of the spectrum you are on — and unfortunately for broadcasters, it appears that they are on the wrong side, where the allocation of broadcast spectrum is concerned.
There is little doubt that viewing habits have long transcended the days where content is ex-clusively consumed via the box in the living room. The rapid proliferation of connected mobile de-vices in recent years, coupled with an increasingly tech-savvy populace, means that content today is more often than not, consumed via different connected devices.
And it is with this development that mobile operators continue to press hard for more spec-trum to meet the growth in demand for data services.
Worryingly for broadcasters, the IMT (Inter-national Mobile Telecommunications) industry appears to have the backing of the ITU (Interna-tional Telecommunication Union) in the looming spectrum war at WRC-15 next year.
Indeed, one of the key agendas of WRC-15 is to “consider additional spectrum allocations to the mobile service on a primary basis”, as stated in agenda item 1.1.
The big question is: Do mobile operators truly require more spectrum, or is the demand projected by mobile operators an overstatement?
A recent study released by Germany’s LS tel-com raises an interesting question. Why are IMT services pressing hard for additional allocations of spectrum when only about 70%-80% of spectrum licensed to mobile operators today is actually deployed? So, why then do mobile operators require more spectrum when they have not fully utilised what was allocated to them by national regulators?
In this case, too much of a good thing is prob-ably a better thing, if you are a mobile operator, that is. However, can the broadcast industry really
Spectrum war hots up over unused allocation
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afford to see finite spectrum handed to mobile operators on a platter, when it might seem that they already have more than enough spectrum to go around?
Terrestrial broadcasting remains the most effective and efficient way to deliver content to mass audiences, whether for HD services today, or for future services such as 4K Ultra HD. For broadcasters to be able to offer these services, spectrum needs to be preserved for broadcast services, if not first but at least as the strongest service-requiring spectrum, cautioned Dr Amal Punchihewa, director of technology at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.
The future of terrestrial TV will be decided in the next 12 months, and if a mobile service alloca-tion becomes fruition in the sub-700MHz TV band, it would probably signal the end of the terrestrial TV platform as we know it, was the stark assess-ment of the European Broadcasting Union. (See page 6 for EBU’s stand on spectrum allocation.)
Harsh words, perhaps, but it may not be as far from the truth as some might expect. Even when putting aside the importance of spectrum for terrestrial broadcasting, studies such as those published by LS telcom places a huge question mark on the legitimacy of mobile operators’ cry for more spectrum.
Now is the time for broadcasters to put pres-sure on regulators to push forward with the licens-ing of remaining IMT spectrum and for mobile operators to put their entire licensed spectrum into use before further spectrum is allocated for IMT services.
SHAWN LIEW DEPUTY EDITOR
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NEWS & VIEWS8 November 2014NEWS & VIEWS8 November 2014
HONG KONG – While video com-petition in Asia-Pacific is growing more intense as new over-the-top (OTT) entrants enter the fray, OTT penetration in the region continues to lag behind North America and Western Europe.
This was the conclusion drawn from a recent webinar conducted by CASBAA and SNL Kagan, which detailed how upstart OTT providers are taking on traditional multi-channel providers in the fight for Asia-Pacific’s video customers.
Based on a series of indicators for TV and telecom sectors on both market size and device/ser-vice penetration, the top-ranking countries in Asia-Pacific for OTT viability are South Korea, Japan, China, Australia and Taiwan. Other factors, such as well-established telecom infrastructure, an open regulatory environment, diverse international content, strong local broadcaster presence and resi-dential purchasing power, can also boost OTT viability.
On a global level, the Asia-Pacific region trails behind North America and Western Europe in terms of pay-TV penetration, while exceeding the Middle East and Africa for fixed broadband penetration. North America and Western Europe also lead the charge for OTT SVoD (subscription video-on-demand) service uptake and revenue, with Asia-Pacific ranking third.
OTT has scope to grow in APAC
Across Asia-Pacific, pay-TV operators are leveraging TV Eve-rywhere deployments to build product competitiveness and cre-ate additional value for existing subscribers, with live streaming channels and VoD libraries rolled out to smartphones, tablets, com-puters, smart TVs and game con-soles. TV Everywhere is believed to play an essential role in long-term video competition for incumbent pay-TV providers to meet the chal-lenge of cord-cutting in light of the OTT evolution.
Ben Reneker, SNL Kagan’s asso-ciate director, said: “Video competi-tion in Asia-Pacific is growing more intense by the day as new OTT entrants stir the pot with innovative business models and content of-ferings. Incumbent providers must continue to react aggressively with TV everywhere roll-outs to ensure long-term competitive viability. Now is not the time to stand still.”
Data usage up – but where’s the crunch?
SK Telecom, Samsung to conduct joint R&D on 5G1 8
Samsung Electronics reported that the latency of 15 seconds, typically associated with live video stream-ing over mobile networks, was reduced by 80% to three seconds.
Park Jin-hyo, senior VP and head of Network R&D Centre, SK Telecom, said: “True Real Time Mobile Streaming technology resolves technical challenges of providing high-quality live video streaming over mobile networks without latency.
“SK Telecom will put more efforts to strengthen its mobile network service quality by devel-oping innovative and advanced technologies.”
Moving on, SK Telecom and Samsung will jointly promote di-verse research and developments for performance improvement and stabilisation of the technology, with plans to provide commercial service within 2015, as well as global standardisation through 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and MPEG.
The companies have also an-
nounced the signing of a MOU to start joint research on 5G-network technology and service develop-ment.
Through the MOU, SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics agreed to share their 5G vision with stand-ardisation groups and technology forums in and out of South Korea; define and select frequency bands suitable for implementation of 5G technology; conduct R&D and ex-periment on enabling technol ogies including the next-generation small cell, massive MIMO (multiple input and multiple output) and next-
1 8to be made available for mobile networks.
Critically, one of the key agen-das of WRC-15, which is now but a year away, is to “consider additional spectrum allocations to the mobile service on a primary basis”, as stated in agenda item 1.1.
The key question remains: Is there sufficient justification to push for more spectrum to be allocated for mobile services?
There is clearly growing de-mand for mobile data services and such demand could be met by more spectrum, Richard Womers-ley, director of Spectrum Services at LS telcom, told APB. However, he was quick to add: “With plenty of spectrum allocated for IMT services by the ITU not yet licensed or in use, there is a need for regulators and operators to properly use what they have and, critically, to under-stand what can be delivered with what is already available, before demanding even more [spectrum].”
In ITU Region 1 (Europe/Africa/Middle East), there is a total of 1025MHz of spectrum that could be used for IMT services, of which 825MHz is in common usage across the majority of countries — or no-tionally harmonised, as LS telcom terms it.
In ITU Region 2 (The Americas and Caribbean), there is a total of 955MHz of spectrum potentially available for IMT services, of which 540MHz is notionally harmonised.
Lastly, ITU Region 3 (Asia/Pacific) has 1025MHz of spectrum potentially available for IMT ser-
vices, of which 655MHz is notionally harmonised.
Moreover, the ‘spec-trum crunch’ predicted by mobile operators has simply failed to materialise, according to Simon Fell, director of Technology & Innovation at the Euro-pean Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Speaking at ‘The Great Spectrum Debate’ at this year’s IBC in Amsterdam, Fel l remarked: “Large swathes of spectrum have been identified for IMT on the basis of the industry forecasts for the traffic growth on mobile networks and the spectrum re-quired to carry this traffic.
“The total amount of IMT spec-trum is still less than which the mobile industry predicted would be necessary in 2015 in order to avoid a ‘spectrum crunch’.
“Surprisingly, while the mobile data traffic actually exceeded the forecasts, this did not cause the pre-dicted ‘spectrum crunch’. So something must be wrong with the way the mobile industry derives their spectrum require-ments.”
Even when factoring in margins of error, the fact remains that spec-trum licensed to mobile operators is being under-utilised, agreed Dr Amal Punchihewa, director of technology at the Asia-
generation modulation/demodula-tion; and develop large volume and high-quality services of 5G and loT (Internet of Things).
Will the development of these LTE-based mobile technologies negate the requirement for more spectrum for mobile services?
It may be a possibility, sug-gested Richard Womersley, director of Spectrum Services at LS telcom, which recently published a report calling on regulators to push forward with the licensing of re-maining IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) spectrum,
Pacific Broadcasting Un-ion (ABU).
Why, then, do mo-bile operators need more spectrum when they have not yet fully utilised what was allocated to them by national regulators, Dr Amal queried.
“Recent reports ques-tion and open a serious consideration for any fur-ther re-allocation [of spec-trum] at WRC-15. Spec-trum should be considered for broadcast services, if not first but at least as
the strongest service requiring spectrum, observing that the IMT industry will not actually require as much spectrum as has been projected over the past few years.”
If there really is a demand as claimed by spectrum seekers in the mobile industry, spectrum that
has already been allocated for IMT must be fully de-ployed, Dr Amal reiterated.
Terrestrial broadcast-ing remains the most ef-fective and efficient way to deliver content for mass audiences — full HD services, and future services such as Ultra HD TV (UHDTV), will inevitably require more bandwidth.
Dr Amal urged: “Spec-trum freed after digitisa-tion cannot be fully re-allocated for other evolv-ing services other than broadcasting.”
Before heading to WRC-15, regulators need
to understand the demand for IMT spectrum within their own countries, and determine if there is a genuine need to allocate more spectrum for mobile services, LS telcom’s Womersley advised. He added: “ITU reports are generic and represent areas with very high population density and very high data usage and are not in any way representative of most countries.
“Without an understanding of national demand, I do not see how regulators can be involved in responsible decision-making at WRC-15.”
Ensure that mobile spectrum requirements are justified, realistic and transparent, is the message EBU’s Fell has for regulators.
“Clearing spectrum for mobile services causes major disruptions and costs for current users and may put whole industries such as Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) or Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) at risk,” said Fell.
“It is therefore important be-fore considering any new IMT spectrum allocations to ensure that the already identified spectrum is licensed and that the mobile indus-try uses the spectrum efficiently.”
Singapore telecom and pay-TV service provider SingTel’s mio TV GO service: Video competition in Asia-Pacific is growing more intense as new OTT entrants enter the fray.
and for operators to put all of their licensed spectrum into use before further spectrum is identified for IMT services.
Womersley told APB: “Regula-tors need to determine, realistically, how much of the already allocated IMT spectrum that could make available in the appropriate time scales. It may be that with the improved spectral efficiency of 4G, and presumably 5G further down the line, the already allocated IMT spectrum in many countries will be sufficient in the foreseeable future.”
However, Dr Amal Punchihewa, director of technology at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), believes that more spectrum would be required. He explained: “LTE can handle high bit rate or high bandwidth data such as video, meaning that more spectrum will be required. The more content there is to deliver, the more will be the spectrum required.
“This is a basic principle that spectrum requirement increases at the same proportion with that of the number of live streams be-ing offered.”
EBU’s Simon Fell: “Something must be wrong with the way the mobile industry derives their spectrum requirements.”
ABU’s Dr Amal Punchihewa: “Spectrum freed after digitalisation cannot be fully re-allocated for other evolving services other than broadcasting.”
SK Telecom and Samsung are starting joint research on 5G-network technology and service develop-ment.
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