BARILOCHE — Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her Brazilian peer Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva yesterday met after the close of the UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) summit to preside over the signing of a frame agreement paving the way for adoption by Argentina of the same digital television standard employed by Brazil in its big cities.
“It really was a long day today and I share my colleague’s view that there can be no better way to close it than, precisely, doing it on a high note with an agreement rooted in early discussions we held in 2005,” Fernández de Kirchner said.
 With Brazil and Argentina, South America’s largest
economies, using the Japanese Integrated Services Digital
Broadcasting, or ISDB, standard, much of the rest of the region
is expected to follow.
Both heads of state hailed the day’s significance “for the renewed affirmation of the strategic alliance binding our two countries together.”
They said the neighbouring nations in South America’s two largest countries now “view business affairs from a very different perspective.” They said they would combine their technological efforts to manufacture required by the TV digitalization process. “We’ve come to the end of the day in a splendid way and I harbour hopes that other UNASUR countries will adopt the same standard in order that we move ahead with technical complementation,” the Argentine Chief Executive commented.
The signing of an agreement to implement whereby Argentina adopts the new TV standard “sets the conditions for establishment of a regional technology hub,” Da Silva added. “We plan to spread our own technology, one which meets our specific needs. This is a first step towards acquisition of a technology we have benefitted from in Brazil. It’s already channelling our public television projects regarding education, quality and democracy.”
Argentines will benefit from the new TV standard through enhanced picture and sound quality at no extra cost. The Brazilian TV standard, called SBTV-D (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisao Digital), is based on the Japanese original, dubbed ISDB-T integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial). Perú employs the same TV standard and Venezuela is leaning toward doing so.
The total Argentine investment required to allow for country-wide access to land-based digital TV transmissions has been estimated at 3.5 billion pesos.
The Japanese government donated initial equipment to launch the switchover from the current analogue TV standard to a digital format.
The signing ceremony also included an agreement providing a basis for cooperation in digital television technology by the two countries. The document was signed by Argentina’s Federal Planning Ministry and Brazil’s Communications Ministry.
At the same time, the Argentine and Japanese governments ratified a previous agreement allowing for introduction of the Brazilian version of the Japanese digital TV technology, called Integrated Services (ISDB-T) standard. The agreement also included industrial cooperation guidelines.
Argentina’s Communications Secretariat selected the Japanese digital TV format over rival US technology, which it selected in 1998 but never implemented. The Fernández de Kirchner government revoked that decision after Brazil lobbied in South America for the Japanese standard, saying a regional alignment would facilitate production of the equipment to receive digital signals.
 Brazil and Japan also argued the ISDB standard was the best
for sending transmissions to mobile telephones and to produce
interactive television programs.
 Co-signing the bi-national treaty on TV technology with the two heads of state were foreign ministers Jorge Taiana and Celso Amorim of Argentina and Brazil, respectively, Argentine Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido, Brazilian Communications Minister Hélio Costa and their respective communications secretaries Lisandro Salas and Roberto Pinto Martins. Japanese Ambassador Hitohiro Ishida and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy Hiroya Masuda were also at hand.
 An industry group of Japanese companies, the Digital Broadcasting Experts Group, or DiBEG, has promoted the Japanese standard in Latin America. Leaders of that group include NEC Corporation, Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Panasonic Corporation, Fuji Television Network, Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Sony Corporation and others.
DyN-Rueters-Télam