On June 13, just after midnight, the United States produced the so-called “analog blackout,” by which all of the nation’s television stations stopped using the analog signal and gave way to exclusively digital transmission. Presenting this change as a new technological leap forward (similar to the switch from black and white to color), the hype has framed digital TV primarily as merchandise, a spectacle that did not fail to dazzle Latin America. Yet far from being a mere technical matter, it represents for our countries a serious possibility to advance the democratization of communication.

As part of a broader process of technological convergence that goes beyond the realm of television and radio, Terrestrial Digital Television (TDT) improves image and sound quality compared to current analog TV and allows for increased interactivity and mobility (reception in mobile devices, such as portable televisions or cell phones). But it also allows for the multiplication of the number of channels in the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning more open TV channels. The same bandwidth currently assigned to one analog channel will allow for the transmission of three or more channels.

If the public interest takes priority in the policies that are adopted to implement digital frequencies, our countries could establish conditions to democratize the media structure, – which is currently characterized by concentration and meager diversity of content – by incorporating new actors and social groups. This could give rise to greater and better quality production of national content: more and better television.

The issue of ensuring the full optimization of the spectrum, and the consequent opening of opportunities for the transmission of new programming and the inclusion of new actors, should take precedence over that of image quality. Therefore, the claim of current holders of airwave concessions to an “acquired right" to the bandwidth assigned to them is inadmissible. Neither should “high definition” be the central issue of the transition.

Since this latter format has a definition that at least doubles the standard format, it requires more bandwidth, so its very implementation would block the immediate entrance of new actors into the realm of television. Moreover, the majority of the population would for a time be excluded since they would be unable to purchase a digital television set. And we should not lose sight of the imbalance that would be created between the big corporations and those channels of a public, cultural or local character

Digital TV is a new platform that allows us to rethink the audiovisual system, to create the system that we want. We should demand greater cultural and informational diversity and pluralism, including the offer of regionalized cultural content, through local and regional media outlets. This is an indispensable condition for the deconcentration of the reigning media establishment and, at the same time, strengthening national production, particularly in terms of software and content.

This possibility of bringing “new solutions to old problems” is political rather than technical, and calls for the definition of new democratic regulatory frameworks, that take into account the current process of technological convergence. This would include: public control of the process of concessioning the spectrum; the opening of the spectrum to civil society entities and the subsidization of historically excluded groups; clear normative definitions to impede monopolies and oligopolies and the commodification of culture; the subordination of concessions to the presentation of projects in tune with democratically adopted public policies; the definition of clear rules of operation, such as time-bands for advertizing, for local, regional and national production, etc.; the establishment of a system of public communication that is truly public; essential services provided at no cost, the creation of participatory spaces for the formulation, follow-up and evaluation of communication policies, etc.

The different countries of Latin America are mostly defining this transition to the “analog blackout” through “super specialized” technical commissions, with no citizen participation. Moreover, when it should be a central issue for the integration process underway, it is in fact practically absent, due maybe to the absence of an effective common digital agenda, to the interference of powerful interests at stake, or to the lack of political vision or will.

Conforming to legal requirements and costing an estimated US $4 billion, digital TV began to operate in the United States after 20 years in the works. In our countries there are groups determined to accelerate the process, limiting the discussion to one with exclusively technical (and of course, economic) concerns, without establishing the conditions to open up a broad public debate. This opportunity to democratize communication here is greater by far than that offered by the rise of cable TV, which itself was scarcely taken advantage of. If we make the same mistakes now, we will only be assisting large media conglomerates in consolidating their power. So, the question we should ask is: does it make sense to spend a significant amount of money just to have the same trash programming in high definition?

(Translation: Daniel Denvir and ALAI).

- Osvaldo León, an Ecuadorian, has a Masters in Communication Sciences (University of Montreal, Canada). He is Director of “América Latina en Movimiento”.