Brazilian free-to-air television provider TV Globo has begun the transition of its customer base to the new digital television standard, including remote populations within the South American country. It has signed with Technicolor to use its HD set-top boxes, bringing the TV Globo digital signal via C-band satellite to rural areas throughout the country.
Part of a privately owned Brazilian media group with a network of 122 television stations, both owned-and-operated and affiliated broadcasters, TV Globo is both a producer and broadcaster of TV content countrywide, generating over 2,500 hours of programming each year.
This deal positions Technicolor as the first digital HD set-top box provider certified by TV Globo for reception of their digital C-band signal.
“The decision to open up digital TV to rural Brazil creates a massive market opportunity for TV Globo,” said Georges Laplanche, senior vice president, Connect Division at Technicolor. “Brazil is a continental country and most people who live in rural areas use analog receivers to access television programming, all of which must gradually migrate to digital. We are delighted to have been chosen as the first supplier certified by TV Globo.”
TV Globo and its affiliates already transmit digital terrestrial TV in over 20 Brazilian metropolitan areas. The move to extend into rural areas via digital satellite transmission aligns with TV Globo’s strategy to offer digital TV to all households in Brazil, whether covered by the digital terrestrial signals transmitted by an affiliated broadcaster or outside the urban perimeter. The new Technicolor set-top box will incorporate a GPS unit which identifies whether it is located in a rural area; in this case, it will receive and decode TV Globo’s digital satellite signal (which will be known as TVDR - Digital Television for Rural Areas). In the beginning, TVDR will be launched featuring only one national digital signal in standard definition, but regional signals will replace the national, region by region, and the signals will migrate to high definition. The HD set-top box will offer superior video and sound quality with no interference or loss of quality or signal with rain. The system is already available in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
“We have a great commitment to serving the Brazilian population with high quality, free-to-air, local television programming, and we are confident that Technicolor’s leading HD set-top box technologies will enable us to offer a high quality digital service to the extensive rural areas of our country,” said Liliana Nakonechnyj, director of transmission technology for TV Globo.
