Japanese Broadcasters Refuse the White Spaces

We held the ICPF Symposium yesterday in Tokyo. Kevin Werbach made a good presentation about the American experience of DTV transition. He emphasized that the problem is not DTV but opening up the wasted spectrum for the New Network Age when various types of wireless media compete.

However, after his presentation, Chiharu Kamise, the Technical Director of Fuji TV, surprised us saying "There will be very few white spaces in Japan. While there are only 1,500 stations in the U.S., there will be as many as 13,000 DTV stations in Japan". He might have mistaken the white spaces as the geographical spaces not covered by airwaves.

I pointed out the misunderstanding, but Kamise insisted that broadcasters would not allow entrants to white spaces because mobile terminals would interfere with the broadcasting signals. It's the same logic as American broadcasters protect their vested interests. As Werbach said, the interference is not a technical term but a political slogan.

Good news is that METI submitted a public comment (in Japanese) to the MIC that encourages them to consider the utilization of white spaces. It's usual in the U.S. for a Department to criticize another's policy, but it's rare in Japan. It's a long way to the New Network Age in Japan, but it's changing slow and steady.

DTV: It's Not About TV!

Next Friday we are going to have a symposium. This is a slide of the presentation by Kevin Werbach, a keynote speaker.

It's not about TV, but opening up the new frontier of spectrum in which Google, Microsoft, Dell, Motorola, HP, and other entrants are going to develop innovations.

Moreover, the spectrum would be a huge "hidden asset" that would amount to more than 2 trillion yen (20 billion dollars). Please e-mail to info@icpf.jp.

B-CAS Inc. Is Illegal

The Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily, reported that B-CAS Inc., a joint venture of major Japanese broadcasters that distributes the B-CAS cards. According to the report, B-CAS Inc. has never disclosed their P/L and B/S since it was established in 2000. It's illegal and could be punished.

B-CAS Inc. admitted their misconduct and disclosed the financial statements for the first time. It's strange that the cost of the card - very simple IC card that contains only a cypher key - is sold to electronic manufacturers with $6 and its cost is more than $5 apiece. Experts say the card costs around $1 when they are produced more than 44 million pieces. The cards might be bought at higher prices from their shareholder's subsidiary to transfer the profit - as is often the case in Japan.

The report is striking because the Asahi Shimbun is the parent company of TV Asahi, a shareholder of B-CAS Inc. It might be the beginning of demise of B-CAS, which the government wants to abolish for the DTV transition. Japanese FTC is also interested in this company, which is a great barrier of entry by domestic and foreign companies.

ICPF Symposium: The Challenge of Digital TV Transition 2011

The analog broadcasting in Japan is planned to stop until July 24, 2011. However, there are almost 100 million analog TVs in Japan now. Can they be all changed to digital in three years? How would it be financed? This is a very difficult challenge, but it would be a great opportunity to open the precious UHF band to new entrants, too. Our Information and Communication Policy Forum (ICPF) is going to have a symposium to discuss this problem.

Date: July 25, 2008
Place: Kudan Kaikan, Tokyo (map)

Program

13:00 Registration

13:30 Keynote Speech 1: Toranosuke Katayama (ex-Minister of MIC)
“The Strategy of Japanese Government for the Digital Transition”

13:50 Keynote Speech 2: Kevin Werbach (University of Pennsylvania)
"From Broadcasting to the Network Age: Lessons from the Digital TV Transition in the United States"

15:10 Discussion: “How Japanese Government Should Overcome the Transition”

• Hajime Oniki (Osaka Gakuin University)
  
• Hideki Maekawa (TBS Research Institute)
  
• Nobuyoshi Kodera (IT journalist)
  
• Hiroshi Yoshida (Chief of Terrestrial Broadcasting Division, MIC)
  
• Moderator: Hajime Yamada (Toyo University)

17:00 Closing

Capacity: 100 people
Fee: 5000 yen
Registration: E-mail to info@icpf.jp