Summary

India and Singapore both selected DVB-T for digital television, influenced by historical ties to British broadcasting technology and the BBC. Political dynamics, post-STAR TV consumer demand, and regional infrastructure shaped each country's distinct path toward digital adoption.

Source document circa 1999 preserved as-is

On India Chosing DvB-T

India - and Singapore - both have historical ties to technology brought and developed by the British. In the television age, many of their past group of engineers - now managers - got their technical training and experience in the UK, at the BBC and sister organizations. Historically, the BEEB has remained a strong center of technology influence throughout that region. There was in effect only one "customer" for television technology in India until recently - Doordarshan - the state owned radio and tv organization; similarly in Singapore...and Malaysia.

STAR-TV changed all that in the eighties/early nineties when Free TV via satellite, was transmitted from Hong Kong across all of South Asia. When the "Santa Barbara" series transmissions stopped all commercial activity in the country, and showed real aerial pictures of miles of homes with swimming
pools, lots of folks in India woke up. Both those on the bottom and those on the top.

India is - to put it delicately - "more democratic" - and diverse - than Singapore, so the entrenched powers in India could defend the status quo, until the a post-STAR middle class consumer demand forced the large bureaucracy to adapt or die. In Singapore, "wise leadership" saw the digital revolution coming and worked hard to adopt it, while trying to keep information dispersal under government control; there were fewer conflicting interests to contend with and resolve; and a more homogenous populace.

Both places now excel in technical and entrepreneurial talent and lead, rather than follow, in many areas, to the limits imposed by their existing physical, cultural and social infrastructures. Both, for real-world-learned political reasons, are not at all in awe of what is done the US by smart engineers; they study and learn and adopt and excel when the rewards are local.

Politics there plays a large role in opposition, sometimes, to the reasoned, logical approach to choices that need to be made; just as they do here. But in the Telecosm, listening to the technology is the route to success - and those that are, are winning.

J. M. Walsh

JMW Associates
4199 Rockcreek Court
Danville, California 94506

 

Advanced Television Publishing

Copyright 1999