THE Kapisanan ng Brodkaster ng Pilipinas recommended to the National Telecommunications Commission the adoption of the Japanese standard for the Philippines’ migration to digital TV because of its “affordable” set-top box and assistance from Tokyo.

In a position paper submitted to the regulator, KBP said the Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial 2 of the European standard is technically “superior,” but its advantage over Japan’s Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial standard was “irrelevant” to consumers.

KBP said the STB for DVB-T2 is “substantially higher” than ISDB-T with a price difference of almost $20.

“The low cost of STB lowers the entry or migration barrier for the consumer and hastens the ASO,” KBP said, referring tot he analogue shut-off date.

The group said consumers considered the price of P2,000 to P3,000 as the “affordable” price of a STB.

KBP said there is only one manufacturer of DVB-T2 STB while there are several for ISDB-T STB.

The group said the rollout of DVB-T2 infrastructure is lower compared with ISDB-T but royalty will be paid for the use of the European standard.

In contrast, royalties for ISDB-T have been waived, KBP said, adding that the Japanese government is willing to help the NTC in the development of a frequency plan for free and will help finance state-run TV networks’ migration to digital broadcasting.

The government of Japan will also extend low-interest loans to private TV networks in implementing their individual plans with ISDB-T.

KBP said various TV networks —ABS-CBN, Net 25, RPN, IBC 13, PTV 4 and SBN—have undertaken test broadcasts of the digital format using ISDB-T specifically.

Sought of comment, Gamaliel Cordova, NTC chief said the regulator is evaluating the position papers of KBP and other TV networks.

The NTC was supposed to issue the implementing rules and regulations for digital TV last month, but delayed release because of the review ordered by Malacañang.

Last year, the regulator issued an order adopting the Japanese ISDB-T as the standard. But some broadcasting companies requested reconsideration of Europe’s DVB-T2.

If the initial NTC plan pushes through, the Philippines will be the first in Asia to adopt the Japanese standard for digital TV.

Besides Japan, other countries that adopted ISDB-T were Brazil, Peru, Chile, Venzuela, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Paraguay.

Digital TV is a system for broadcasting and receiving digital sound and video signals that require a specially designed and more advanced TV set than the traditional analog box.

The regulator estimates that around 14 million Filipino households use analog TV sets.

The country plans to migrate from analog to digital TV by 2015.