Interactive Digital Television in Italy Sebastiano Trigila Coordinator of Digital Television Project Paris, 6 February 2006
Italian position on IDTV Interactive Digital Television is seen as a great opportunity for Italy (citizens, companies, public administrations) Suitable for spreading on-line services Several services may use the same back-ends as for the Internet Users of services may feel more comfortable than with the (open fields) Internet Focus on interactive services, for economic viability of FTA digital television, for e-government and social inclusion Digital terrestrial television has been planned interactive well before its launching DTT has been acting as the forerunner of interactivity Digital Television via broadband access is converging towards MHP interactivity Digital Television via DTH has already some context-related interactivity, and is considering support of t-government services 2
Digital TV offer overview (As of January 2006. Courtesy of RAI) DTT DTT DTH DTH IPTV IPTV Digital TV offer overview PAY-TV FREE-TO-AIR (As of January 2006) * * * * Free-to-air channels included in the basic tier of Fastweb. 3
Digital TV uptake rate (As of December 2005: Courtesy of RAI) Households (_000) Households (%) DIGITAL TV* DTT DTH- FTA DTH- PAY IPTV DIGITAL TV* DTT DTH- FTA DTH- PAY IPTV * Excluding double counting for households with two or more digital platforms (typically DTT and DTH). Sept. 05 Dec. 05 4
The switch-off plans Switch-off is needed as soon as possible. A pathway to total switch-off has been planned: - Progressive switch-off region by region - Coverage beyond 80% of the population will require synergies with other TV platforms and/or convergence with ICT infrastructure - General Switch-off has been postponed: it is now foreseen on December 31, 2008 - based on European Council general indications towards S/O, that foresees a 2008-2012 time window - based on market s willingness to keep up with the s/o plans - Though, two regions, Sardinia and Vallée d Aoste, will undergo anticipated switch-off in between March and July 2006 5
Italian choice for MHP in DTT MHP has been selected as the nation-wide API for Digital terrestrial Television. The choice was made by voluntary consensus among major players in 2002, based on clear invitation by the Government towards full interoperability In 2004 and 2005 the Government has been subsidising DTT decoders allowing remote interactivity and free to air (i.e. interoperable) access to A/V contents and services. In 2006 funding of decoders is cross-platform but region-bound In 2004 the DGTVi association has issued a D-Book, with the national profile (minimum requirements) for interactive decoders The value of the subsidy was meant to cover the differential of price between interactive decoders and zappers (delta=150 in 2004, delta=70 in 2005). 6
Spread of MHP receivers The result of the commitment and funding policy has been clear: a market has been created on the provision side (tens of company brands currently carry decoders in Italy) and the price of MHP decoders has fallen under the psychological barrier of 100 96,8% of decoders sold in Italy are MHP-compliant In absolute terms, 3.5-3.7 million receivers are in Italian households 7
Interactive service offer EPG Interactive advertising Games T-Government Enhanced programmes Teletext TV Channel Portal 8
Services on air Context related Context-free commercial T-gov RAI 6 2 7 (+1 local) MEDIASET 12 14 1 (local) TELECOM 6 9 6 Others (local) d.t.s. d.t.s. 10 9
Coordination Plan Committee for DTT development Minister Committee for Information Society Broadcasters Coordination Groups Management of T-government Programme Technical Coordination Of Public Trials Progetti Progetti Sperimentazione ProgettiDTT Sperimentazione DTT Sperimentazione Su T frequenze government DTT Su frequenze Libere Su e disponibili frequenze Projects Libere e disponibili Libere e (3M ) disponibili Progetti Progetti Sperimentazione ProgettiDTT Sperimentazione DTT Sperimentazione Su frequenze Trials DTT Su frequenze Libere Free Su e frequenze disponibili or available Libere e disponibili Libere frequencies e disponibili 10
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The Association Ambiente Digitale Association for the promotion and development of interactive applications and best practices over digital television: Providers of services and contents Application developers System integrators ICT infrastructure providers Operates through three Work Groups (User Interfaces, Best practices and Killer applications) open also to non-members, and actually attended/contributed by 100+ companies 12
Members of Ambiente digitale ACI Bull Class Editori CSP Enterprise DA Fondazione Bordoni IBM IconMedia Lab Kora MIR My-TV Panini Italia PF2 STMicroelectronics Sun Microsystems Systeam Telespazio Telecom Italia Ubiquity Wind Ambiente Digitale operates three Technical Work Groups (User Interfaces, Best practices and Killer applications) open also to non-members, and actually attended/contributed by 150+ companies 13
Informative Services TV Contents CONTENT PROVIDER Head End, Multiplexing and Transport NETWORK OPERATOR Broadcasting Data Code TV Third Party Services Service Centre STB (client) SERVICE PROVIDER SERVICE or CONTENT PROVIDER USER 14
Interactive Services TV Contents CONTENT PROVIDER Head End, Multiplexing and Transport NETWORK OPERATOR Broadcasting Data Code Specific data TV Third Party Services Service Centre Interaction Channel STB (client) SERVICE PROVIDER SERVICE or CONTENT PROVIDER TELECOM OPERATOR USER 15
The Transactional Services TV Contents CONTENT PROVIDER Head End, Multiplexing and Transport NETWORK OPERATOR Broadcasting Data Code Sensitive data TV Third Party Services Service Centre Interaction Channel STB (client) SERVICE PROVIDER SERVICE or CONTENT PROVIDER TELECOM OPERATOR USER Smart card 16
The Need for Advanced T-government Services Usage of advanced return channels, other than V.90 Usage of smart-cards for user authentication, User authorisation on-line transactions (inc. payments) Some national standards for smart-cards have already been set-up: CNS (Carta Nazionale dei Servizi) CIE (Carta d Identità Elettronica) T-government smart-cards will use the same slot as CA cards 17
The need for advanced types of return channels Various types of interaction channels are being sought beyond V.90 ADSL, GSM/GPRS (in the future also UMTS and future WiMax) Wireless solutions in user premises as replacement of the copper pair are also encouraged Bluetooth, WiFi, Dect 18
Public Action in Support of DTT Interactivity Early demos of the T-government concept (2002) Encouragement of adoption of interactive STBs with open APIs Subsidies for STBs, only if interactive, with open API and with a return channel Coordination of providers of interactive contents, enabling platforms and applications Co-funding of T-government projects Co-funding of T-services in the context of All Digital Areas 19
Public Call for Co-funding of T-government Projects (mid-2004) A joint initiative of Ministry of Communications (through CNIPA) and Ministry of Innovation and Technology (through FUB), to boost Provision and use of T-government Higher degree of interactivity Advanced types of return channel More effective and more secure use of interactivity Use of smart cards for users AAA Business and financial viability Willingness to share T-governement solutions among different local administrations 20
The outcome of the Public Call 73 Proposals received 35 Projects approved for co-funding 150+ Partners Region and Province Councils City Councils (municipalities) Associations of municipalities Public utilities Broadcasters Telcos Applications developers Technology and infrastructure providers Services should by mid 2006 21
Typical Project Structure Canale di ritorno 22
Projects co-funded by FUB Regione Lombardia Parma Pisa Lucca Livorno Verona e Livorno Bologna Poste 23
Projects co-funded by CNIPA 1 CASPER Regione Emilia Romagna Emilia Romagna 2 PRODIGIT Comune di Roma Lazio 3 DTToscana Regione Toscana Toscana 4 TI-RECS Comune di Bari Puglia 5 DTTSiena Comune di Siena Toscana 6 Partecip@re Provincia di Lecce Puglia 7 BLL Regione Lombardia Lombardia 8 e-govdt-ra Regione Abruzzo Abruzzo 9 TV-DICO Comune di Palermo Sicilia 10 SenzaBarriere.TV Comune Venezia Veneto 11 T-E_J Provincia di Genova Liguria 12 T-Sei Com. di Reggio Calabria Calabria 13 GPC Regione Lombardia Lombardia 14 META FVG Reg. Friuli Venezia Giulia Friuli Venezia Giulia 15 Territorio in Onda Comune di Pesaro Marche 16 T-Liguria Regione Liguria Liguria 17 AMICA-TV Prov. Auton. di Trento Provincia di Trento 18 DiLucca Comune di Lucca Toscana 19 T.CiTel Comune di Pisa Toscana 20 Digimarche.DIT Regione Marche Marche 21 vivicitta Com. di Bassano del Grappa Veneto 22 DTT-Umbria Regione Umbria Umbria 23 QMIC Comune Torino Piemonte 24 Tvarese Comune di Varese Lombardia 25 ComOnAir Comune di Como Lombardia 26 ChiariTeVi Provincia di Cosenza Calabria 27 DITEMI Comune di Milano Lombardia 28 Puglia-Tgov Regione Puglia Puglia 29 T-Basilicatane Regione Basilicata Basilicata 24
Service distribution Servizi di t-gov 16 13 34 16 25 Attività istituzionali Turismo e manifestazioni Salute e benessere 25 Lavoro e occupazione Assistenza sociale Scuola e formazione 25
Target users Directly involved via a test usage campaign 12.000 households Within coverage of muxes carrying services sponsored by the T-gov Programme 800.000 households (for some projects: all households equipped with DTT receivers) Special addressees social categories affected by the digital divide citizens with poor or null usage of the Internet citizens in seek of employment elderly people citizens with special needs 26
Geographical coverage of T-Government Projects Co-funded by FUB Cofunded by CNIPA Cofunded by Ministry of Communications in the All digital regions 27
Merci de votre attention! Merci à AFDESI! Sebastiano Trigila Coordinator of Digital Television Project trigila@fub.it www.fub.it 28