The commercial prospects for digital video broadcasting

The evolution of video compression systems giving a picture quality at data rates of 2 Mbit/s at least as good as that received on the average domestic PAL television set or played back from a video recorder, created great interest and provided a strong market drive for broadcasters to implement a complete direct-to-home (DTH) satellite programme delivery infrastructure having a capacity in excess of 100 channels from a single satellite. For such a system, leading to a mass market of receivers for the public, standardisation of the technical specification was essential. This task was taken up by the digital video broadcasting (DVB) project in 1993 and the main standardisation work for satellite and cable delivery systems completed in 1994, with the result that DTH satellite receivers have just started mass production. The most important aspect in the evolution of DVB has been that it was market-led by the application to satellite delivery. The DVB project, however, has recognised the importance of also formulating the technical standards for cable delivery, for terrestrial delivery and for MMDS.