Spanish DVB-H timed for Q2 08

Spain’s DVB-H network will be ready in the second quarter of 2008, the general manager of DTT network provider Abertis Telecom assured delegates to IBC over the weekend.

Tobías Martínez said the deployment of the DVB-H network was a "great" opportunity for Spain's broadcasters and mobile operators in order for them to give a "convergent" service where the same content is offered at the same time to users.

Martínez identified three pilars of Spain's future DTT: mobile DTT, HDTV and DTT on the internet. As for interactive services, Martínez mentioned the initiatives called TDT 2.0 and TDT 3.0. The first will allow the citizen easy and secure access to the Information Society's services while TDT 3.0 will centre its efforts on the development of the HDTV concept in order to profit by the new technologies of the future TV sets.

Although the Spanish DTT market is not successful with DTT PVRs or MHP receivers or even with HDTV such as France for example, the speed at which the DTT receivers penetration go is the highest in Europe. Martínez said Spain had a market of 3.4 million DTT receivers eight months ago in comparison to France which had 4.8 million terminals. "This difference is very small taking account France's objective is to reach 6 million homes more", he declared. France launched DTT later than Spain but the platform is more interesting in terms of content and services.