DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TV (DTTV)

What economic and regulatory factors changed digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) from a failure into a success?

What economic and regulatory factors changed digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) from afailure into a success?

Over the next fifteen years how much and in what ways will the "digital revolution" transform the media?

The digital revolution is something that has noticeably affected our planet and not to mention our media. We have science to thank for this.

The digital revolution has already started and is changing the face of our planet in terms of its look and feel and not to mention its size. This revolutionary process is known as the "shrinking planet", and is used to describe the way in which advances in digital technology have erased boundaries and by doing so has made the world a easier place to access, i.e. a smaller space. "The death of the distance will probably be the single most important force shaping society in the first half of the next century". (Cairncross, 1998, 1). The rise of the bit in our new digital age has penetrated every aspect of our lives from our homes to our workplaces, almost every industry and every business. Entrepreneurs are struggling to cope as they find new ways of taking advantage of the super efficient bit, in hope of measuring up to new forever going standards set by the digital revolution. "As our one industry after another looks at itself ion the mirror and asks about its future in the digital world, that future is driven almost 100% by the ability of that companies product and services to be rendered in digital from". (Negroponte, 1995, 12)(PIRE (50), 1962,, 428).

It is important to consider that the impact caused by the shrinking digital revolution as we know it, will have different effects in different countries across the globe.

Differing communication fields in different countries means that the digital revolution will have two different effects in those countries that have 1.already developed, or 2. For those which are still developing. "A rise in set ownership and the spread of multi channel television". (Cairncross, 1998, 68) will mark the impact of the digital revolution in those less developed countries where by TV sets are less numerous. This however is no shock to more developed countries for which the digital revolution has already made its debut. The digital age has pushed a slow but prominent change in our communications.

The impact of the digital revolution can be seen easily at looking at its function on TV. The largest impact took place as the result of new delivery systems .DBS or direct broadcasting by satellite were the new mode of delivery introduced by digital advancement and differed greatly from traditional terrestrial means of delivery.

In terrestrial means of delivery, more technically known as analogue programming,

Choices available to viewers were limited as the analogue delivery system meant fewer channels. "Predominant over the air or traditional terrestrial broadcasting has effectively restricted most people to four or five channels" (Cairncross, ...