Engineering:Digital television in Indonesia

Indonesian digital television is the replacement of Indonesian analogue TV and runs in digital video broadcasting terrestrial (DVB-T2).

History

• On August 13, 2008 a state-owned television broadcast TVRI made a soft launching of digital television
• On May 20, 2009 two consortiums television broadcasters made a trial run of digital television

Frequency

Analogue System: 478 MHz to 806 MHz. Digital System: 478 MHz to 694 MHz only, from 694 MHz to 806 MHz will be used for mobile broadband system.

Regulations

Supreme Court has cancelled Communication and Information Ministry Regulation Number 22 Year 2011 and on December 27, 2013 the Communication and Information Ministry has released Communication and Information Ministry Regulation Number 32 Year 2013 which significant consist of:

• Digital Broadcast through Terrestrial System is served by LPP TVRI, LPP Lokal, LPS and LPK
• Multiplexing Broadcast through Terrestrial System is served by LPP TVRI and LPS, which have to follow open access and non-discriminatory principles
• Other LPS and LPS with analogue broadcast can rent bandwidth from LPS with rent fee to be discretion of Communication and Information Minister
• Local LPP and LPK with analogue broadcast should cooperate with LPP TVRI

Note: LPP or Lembaga Penyiaran Publik (Public Broadcasting Body), LPS or Lembaga Penyiaran Swasta (Private Broadcasting Body), LPK or Lembaga Penyiaran Komunitas (Community Broadcasting Body)

No significant matters changes between old and new regulation, except no analogue switch-off, zonal term is changed by provinces, set new initial time of digital broadcast. Zone/Province is same and also the licence. Indonesia Local Television Association (Asosiasi TV Lokal Indonesia - ATVLI) wants another appeal to Supreme Court, if the new regulation, mainly the multiplexing license selection is still burden for local television broadcasters.

On March 5, 2015 Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara (PTUN) or Administrative Court cancelled all Communication and Information Ministry Regulation Number 22 Year 2011 which has been cancelled by Supreme Court (above), so no digital TV broadcasts are allowed, if Communication and Information Ministry is not make appeal within 14 days after court decision date.NOTE: BUT Until now. Digital Television still On-Air

On May 15, 2018, KEMENKOMINFO will be switching off the analog terrestrial TV in 20 phases, starting on 17 February 2019 and finishing on 12 June 2019.

Digital area

Digital area of Communication and Information Ministry Regulation Number 32 Year 2013:

• Developed Economy Area 1: Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, and East Java initial Q1 2013
• Developed Economy Area 2: Banten, Yogyakarta, Riau Islands initial Q1 2013 and North Sumatra, East Kalimantan initial Q1 2014
• Developed Economy Area 3: Aceh initial Q1 2014, and West Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra, Lampung, Bali, South Sulawesi, North Sulawesi initial Q3 2014, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan initial Q4 2014, and Bengkulu, Bangka Belitung, Maluku initial Q1 2015
• Less Developed Economy Area 4: West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, West Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, South Kalimantan initial Q4 2014 and West Papua, North Maluku, Gorontalo initial Q1 2015
• Less Developed Economy Area 5: Papua initial Q1 2015

Whenever the licence digital broadcasters ready to serve, it can use the table above.

Not as the previous regulation which stated clearly the termination of analog broadcasts and certain time frame for analog broadcasts move to digital broadcasts, the new regulation mentions that both analog and digital broadcasts can together broadcast without any limitation and make until mid-2014 there are no broadcaster clearly move to digital broadcasts.

Current broadcasters

Up to August 2012, TVRI is the solely broadcaster that broadcast digital television in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Batam. TVRI has 376 analog transmitters which 30 of it are compatible and ready to be switched to digital.

At end of September 2012, Metro TV has initial broadcast digital television in:

• Jakarta
• Bandung
• Semarang
• Surabaya
• Malingping, Padeglang, Anyer and Cilegon in Banten Province

Set Top Box

6 millions free Set Top Box (STB) will be distributed soon for low income families, before 2014 FIFA World Cup and vendors have also sold the STB which received signal from DVB-T2 through UHF, so does not necessary to change the analogue antenna. But all the plan above didn't work and the first distributions of set-top-boxes are done by Banten Sinar Dunia Televisi (BSDT) which got zone 4 licence covered Jakarta and Banten. It distributed in Malingping, Banten concerning of Proclamation Date August 17, 2014.

The current set top box price is Rp 299,000 to Rp 350,000.

TV with built-in DVB-T2

Some brands have released LED-TV with built-in DVB-T2, but the smallest TV size is 32 inch with price around Rp 3 million, while analogue LED-TV with same size is only about Rp 2.1 million.

Constrains

Although all major analog TV broadcasters have also broadcast digital TV, but no one of local analog TV broadcasters rent channel of major digital TV broadcasters. The digital TV broadcasters have also broadcast one or two channels only.