To think that in each home in Latin América there is a TV set is not such an absurd idea. Television is part of the daily life of Latin Americans, either as an entertainment or as an information source. Children, adolescents, adults and elderly family members take the remote control, sit, click the TV set on, and change channels as many times as necessary until they find the contents they were looking for.
During the 70s, television in Latin America went through a radical change upon leaving behind black and White, and starting to emit color signals. This took place after decisions taken by each country when choosing one of the three norms currently in use: NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. This decision was taken based on a wide range of benefits, and at the same time, considering that a large percentage of TV owners didn’t have a color TV set (in Argentina, one of the first color transmissions were the 1978 World Soccer Finals).
Television is again going through a change towards Digital Terrestrial Television. This change will lead to a better use of the band range, emitting a larger amount of signals through the same band width, and increasing the territory they can reach, serving a bigger amount of homes.
A majority of Latin American homes will receive the Japanese digital sign ISDB-Td, including some modifications introduced by Brazil, which was the first country in the region to choose Japanese standards.
Other countries that have chosen the same ISDB-Td digital television system are: Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Perú, and Venezuela. These countries have already signed agreements with Japan and Brazil to progress towards the analogical closedown (that would occur near the end of the year 2020).
Countries like Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras have adopted the ATSC (USA) digital television, while Uruguay, Panama and Colombia have decided to use the DVB-T (Europe) system.
The migration towards the Digital Terrestrial Television system has already started. An example of this is what is currently going on in Argentina, where the national government has launched a plan for the homes of lower income in Buenos Aires city and greater Buenos Aires urban belt, may have the de-codifier before the 2010 World Soccer Cup kick off. Though only two channels are ready to transmit through a digital signal, (both government owned), the government expects to add 15 signals more in order to transmit the National Team matches in high definition (though in order to achieve that, an HD-READY TV set will be required).
Those homes that don’t receive the de-codifiers supplied by the government, may buy one (there is only one outlet so far, Coradir, and it costs US$ 175.-) The Digital Terrestrial Television will enable the viewer to see a soccer match, the local news program, a concert, etc. through his or her mobile phone, (as from US$ 210.- for LG and Samsung brands), computers and notebooks (“decos” USB KWorld, as from US$ 100.-) and through any other device with the required hardware (pocket TV, for example).
It is not difficult to imagine that new devices will soon join the ones currently in use, and with better hardware, as well as more attractive designs, interfaces and friendlier applications, etc.