The Digital Broadcasting Transition Period of Terrestrial TV and Radio
Radio and TV channels are categorized as terrestrial, cable, satellite and Internet publications according to their transmission medium. In our country, satellite and cable publications are licensed by Radio and Television Supreme Council Corporation. Terrestrial publications broadcast as part of Radio and Television codes. Terrestrial publication establishments’ number is below by July.
Table 1: Applicant Institutions to Terrestrial Analog TV Publication
3984 numbered Radio and Television Institutions and Publications code entered in force in 1994 and sentenced to make frequency plans and then license publication institutions.
In an attempt to assign channel/frequency for terrestrial broadcast to Supreme Broadcast broadcasting organizations, we went to tender for 3 times in 1997, 2001 and 2013 but licensing operations were not completed for a variety of reasons. Because of this, sorting tender of licensing terrestrial radio and television broadcast weren’t put in, code 3984’s ad interim 6st clause continues.
Within the rule of today’s technology and legal acquis AB, as a result of regulations of AB Audiovisual Media Services Instruction that entered in a force in 2007 December by broadcasting in AB Gazette, 6112 numbered code about Radio and Televisions’ Establishment and Broadcast Services entered in a force in March 3, 2011.
In 2006, Regional Radio Communication Conference (RRC-06) came together within International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Cenevre.
Table 2: The allocations are made for Turkey in RRC-06 Conference
Figure 1: Turkey Frequency Areas Determined in RRC-06 Conference
- TV channel and radio frequency planning will be made by Radio and Television Supreme Board, national, regional and local territorial broadcasts’ numbers and types and multiplex numbers will determine for numerical broadcasts.
- 6112 numbered code’s release date is March 3, 2011. From this date, within 2 years latest, numerical television multiplex capacity sorting tender will put in.
- At the end of this 2 years, analog terrestrial television broadcasts will be finished countrywide and analog terrestrial television broadcasts will be stopped.
In this context, on the date of April 16-18, 2013, National Terrestrial Numerical TV Broadcast License Sorting Tender; on the date of May 2-3, 2013, Regional Terrestrial Numerical TV Broadcast License Sorting Tender; on the date of Jun 24-28, 2013 and July 01-02, 2013, Local (T3) Terrestrial Numerical TV Broadcast License Sorting Tender were performed and tender results were published in RTUK Internet website. Aforesaid tenders were confirmed by Supreme Board.
But, national tenders’ executive was stopped in the direction of court decisions about aforesaid tenders and then were cancelled.
Turkey’s terrestrial numerical broadcast standard was determined as DVB-T2 and MPEG-4 that is the last technology in numerical publishing and accordingly, Terrestrial Numerical Television (DVB-T2) Frequency Plan was prepared. Later, having regards to developments of compression technique in the world, instead of current MPEG-4, new technology HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding – H.265) compression technique was defined.
For our customs aren’t aggrieved, devices’ necessary specifications were defined and by name of TS 13538 “Television Receivers – General Rules for Second Generation Numerical Terrestrial Broadcast System (DVB-T2)” was accepted and published by TSE (Turkish Standards Institution).
As a result, in our country, terrestrial numerical TV broadcast is not used yet. Cancelled sorting tenders make this process be late. Regulations and specifications’ editing works are continued and these works should be completed as soon as possible and sorting tenders need to be done.
Muhsin KILIÇ Erdem ÇAKMAK
Head of Departmant Expert of Supreme Board
