• Still languishing around analogue tech for TV
• Delay disrupts delivering digital experience to viewers  

By Yakuta Dawood  Despite years of discussions and preparation, the Government of Sri Lanka is yet to adopt digital transmission technology for terrestrial TV broadcasting to replace the current analogue technology that is swiftly deteriorating and becoming obsolete across the globe.  Digital technology for terrestrial television broadcasting was introduced globally in the late 1990s and Sri Lanka is still using the same analogue technology which was first implemented here more than 40 years ago.  Digitalisation of Terrestrial Television Broadcasting in Sri Lanka Project Director Eng. Prasanga Rajapakshe, who was appointed by the Ministry of Mass Media, told The Sunday Morning Business that due to the delay in implementation of the new technology, the broadcasters operating in Sri Lanka were not competent to deliver the digital experience to viewers on the existing analogue broadcasting platform. To address this issue, a new market has developed for pay-TV (subscription-based solution). However, people who cannot afford it are still not able to view high-quality movies.  “TV production and TV sets that are available in the market right now only support digital pictures. Since the broadcasting platform is still analogue, the operators in Sri Lanka are not able to deliver digital pictures to viewers free of charge,” Eng. Rajapakshe explained.   Commenting on the benefits of transforming to digital from analogue transmission, Eng. Rajapakshe said that there were multiple advantages to all stakeholders involved in Sri Lanka. Firstly, viewers will be able to capture all Free To Air (FTA) TV channels in HD picture quality by using a single Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) antenna. Under the current analogue method, viewers are not able to capture all TV channels from a single antenna since TV channels of individual broadcasters come from various directions.   Thus, through digital technology, visual quality will be 100% clear, with no intermittent and unclear pictures, which is the experience with analogue services now. Secondly, local operators can benefit from reduced costs as they are no longer required to maintain their networks and will pass the benefit of having a single network at reduced cost on reduced resource utilisation whilst also having the benefit of delivering advanced, value-added TV services to viewers via digital technology. Lastly, the most beneficial stakeholder is the Government. It will have the most significant advantage of effective utilisation of the radio wave spectrum, which will lead to additional TV channel capacity as well as the release of some existing radio wave spectrums for other telecommunication operations. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Media Analyst Nalaka Gunawardene emphasised that this technology upgrade would enable local operators to improve their quality of service, reduce operating costs, pick more channels within the same frequencies, and find new business opportunities.  “Many countries have already completed this transition and as latecomers, Sri Lanka can benefit from their experiences and avoid any mistakes they might have made in the process,” he added.  However, he said that going digital was much more than a simple technological change as it also posed policy, regulatory, and technology challenges that needed to be managed with expertise, foresight, and due consideration of our country’s broadcasting sector (which includes not only the operators but advertising base, consumers, competition from international channels, etc.) 20 years behind in implementation  Eng. Rajapakshe stated that the current scenario of broadcasting was that individual broadcasters used their broadcasting platforms to broadcast their respective TV channels, whereas the transformation from analogue to digital would lead to a single digital broadcasting platform which would carry all free air TV channels.   He added that even though this method would largely benefit all stakeholders, broadcasters and viewers as well as the spectrum regulatory bodies, the technology adaptation would completely change the current operational structure for broadcasters, which was unfavourable to them.  “Similar to a pay-TV network operator, there will be one operator who will operate this digital platform. The broadcaster’s independence in handling their broadcasting operation will go to a third-party operator. On the other hand, there are various digital technologies available in the world and some broadcasters have concerns about the selection of the technology,” he highlighted.  According to Eng. Rajapakshe, other challenges in this transformation are:

1. To establish a suitable organisation to be acceptable by all broadcasters 
2. To establish a new  legal framework as the current legal framework will be obsolete in adopting to this transformation 
3. Attracting viewers to the new platform

Meanwhile, Gunawardene stated since 1992 successive governments had been issuing broadcast licenses for private companies to operate radio and television stations.  He noted that unlike in the telecommunications sector where liberalisation was preceded by a new law as well as a properly set-up regulator (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission), there had been no legal framework or a regulatory mechanism for broadcasting. Instead, private station licensing has been done under the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Act of 1966 and the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation Act of 1982.  “For 30 years now, private broadcasters have been licensed without due process and in an entirely discretionary manner – essentially, political cronies of each Government secured licenses without any openness. Their licensing conditions are also vastly different. Based on such broadcast licenses issued by the Ministry of Media, the TRC has been assigning frequencies,” he explained.  Thus, Gunawardene emphasised that Sri Lanka needed a legally mandated and properly constituted technical agency like the TRC for the broadcast sector to act as a regulator of infrastructure and not content.  “This analogue-era anomaly should not be carried forward to the digital era in broadcasting that Sri Lanka is due to enter shortly, otherwise we will be allowing digital television broadcasting to happen in the same regulatory vacuum,” he asserted. Moreover, Gunawardene remarked that the lack of an overall law for radio and television broadcasting should be addressed in Sri Lanka whilst also establishing an independent broadcast regulatory over the three State-owned broadcast companies (Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation [SLBC], Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation [SLRC], and Independent Television Network [ITN]) and the 16 privately-owned broadcast companies that held broadcast licenses – all of which used frequencies that were the public property of citizens. LIRNEasia Founding Chair and Advocata Institute Advisor Prof. Rohan Samarajiva speaking to The Sunday Morning Business stated that Sri Lanka had no more licences to issue to any potential broadcasters as all the licenses had been issued to friends and relatives of all the governments since 2005.  “There are no more to be given; the whole band is occupied by users who are already there. If you go to digital frequency, there is no such natural limit; more people can enter the television broadcasting market. Therefore, it’s in the interest of those who are currently occupying to object to new transitions,” Samarajiva expressed. He noted that the present players in the industry would not say it out loud to maintain holistic status as the public would not take them seriously or give respect because it would show that they were standing in the way of technological advancement due to self-interest.  Meanwhile, Samarajiva stated that the 700 MHz frequencies which were used by the operators (via licences) in Sri Lanka had been allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for data communication and were considered extremely valuable across the globe by people who were providing data communication systems for mobile devices. Therefore, he highlighted that the Government of Sri Lanka could auction the 700 MHz frequencies in the world market and earn millions of dollars, instead of gaining a very small proportion from the licenced broadcasting operators in the country.  “Depending on how you design the auction, the money earned can be taken to help out poor people through digital transmission. But unfortunately, this self-serving interest (of operators) is getting in the way of doing this. These people are in fact digging their graves because many countries are moving to digital terrestrial and in a few years spare parts for analogue equipment will not be available. But they don’t worry about that; they are only worried about their short-term, selfish interests. This is why we don’t have digital television in this country — a country that prides itself on being the cutting edge of technology development in South Asia,” Samarajiva revealed.  What has been done and what is left to done?  Project Director Rajapakshe said that so far one of the biggest challenges of finding an investor had been addressed. According to him, over discussions and feasibility study, the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) has agreed to offer the Government of Sri Lanka a soft loan facility to implement this project. The loan agreement has now been finalised between both parties and the Government of Sri Lanka has already set the standard of terrestrial television broadcasting technology in Sri Lanka as the Japanese ISDB-T System.  According to the agreement, both the countries have agreed to implement the project under this updated technology and the project will commence with an HD TV broadcasting facility that will cater to six HD TV channels in one frequency spectrum/channel.   Eng. Rajapakshe said that currently under analogue technology, one frequency channel carried only one TV channel. The upgrade will enable the system to carry all existing 25 TV channels in HD format by using four frequency channels from any given broadcasting station in Sri Lanka. When questioned on the present status, he said that the Project Management Unit of this project was in the process of selecting a suitable consultant for engineering services.  Therefore, upon selection of the consultant, the implementation of the proposed plan will commence immediately, he stated.   “The project implementation period will be five years.  There are 16 identified transmitter stations in the project. We are targeting the first digital TV experience for the free-to-air TV viewers, with Digital Switch Over (DSO) towards the latter part of 2023 and by 2025 the implementation will be over. Then there will be a one-year period for the complete migration of all viewers to this platform, with Analogue Switch Off (ASO). Accordingly, by 2027, the existing analogue broadcasting platform will be fully switched off.” According to Eng. Rajapakshe, the total investment for this project is Japanese Yen 17 million.  The project cost also includes the construction of a building complex for the new operator as well as identifying a separate loan component for the Digital TV Centre for SLRC. “Upon full migration, the new operator will make revenue mainly over network utilisation charges of broadcasters. There are immense opportunities to deliver more services and develop other revenue mechanisms upon complete migration from analogue to digital,” he added.