Digital TV Arrives on Local Airwaves

[Gregg Lengling]

By Angelina Davydova
SPECIAL TO THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
Photo by Alexander Belenky / SPT

 Quietly, and without a fanfare of publicity, Russia has moved a step closer to being at the cutting edge of international high-tech developments. A St. Petersburg company, Telemedium, has begun offering digital-television services in the city, making it the first company in the country to do so, and making Russia the fifth country in the world that offers digital broadcasts.

Although most analysts believe that it will be a long time before Russia sees its first local digital-television stations, plans have already been drawn up by some major stations for a change to the new technology.

"The main difference between digital and analog television is the stability of the signal and the quality of the image," said Dmitri Volobuyev, general director of Telemedium. "We're also transmitting the sound in stereo, though we have the capability to transmit it in Dolby. It's really just a question of the technical characteristics of the channel being broadcast - at the moment, all Russian channels have mono sound."

Currently, six foreign channels are available in digital in St. Petersburg, including CNBC, National Geographic, Eurosport, MCM and Euronews, the latter being broadcast in four different languages.

"Usually, in order to receive these channels on an ordinary television set, you'd need a satellite dish. With us, you can use a normal terrestrial antenna - you just buy a special receiver and hook it up to your television," Volobuyev said.

Telemedium began offering the service when it bought a digital transmitter produced by a Russian firm, Mart, and connected it to St. Petersburg's main television-broadcasting tower on the Petrograd Side. Volobuyev admits that customers living on the ground floor in enclosed courtyards could have problems with reception.

Viewers with specialized digital-television sets, however, will be able to receive the broadcasts without purchasing Telemedium's receiver. Currently, only 5 percent of television sets manufactured globally are digital, and cost from $500 to $7,000.

Volobuyev said that demand for digital television in St. Petersburg is showing a slight tendency to increase. "We made a quiet start at the end of the summer, with our first aim being to establish links with electrical-equipment dealerships. So far, we have contracts with 25 shops," he said.

However, the sector is still in its infancy, with digital users still amounting to a just a fraction of 1 percent.

"Digital television is part of the distant future, and our main task at present is transferring the local broadcasting networks to digital equipment," said Igor Ignatyev, the deputy director of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting channel (RTR), one of the leading stations in the country. "Currently, we can't even deliver our signal to all the regions in St. Petersburg - there are even areas which terrestrial broadcasting doesn't reach."

"Obviously, federal and local channels have plans to enter the digital market, but it's likely that the first fully digital channel will open somewhere abroad, as the consumer market there is so much bigger than it is here," Ignatyev said.

Nevertheless, Gennady Sklyar, general director of RTR - a state-owned company operating over 15,000 television transmitters - has said that the company intends to move over to digital broadcasting by 2008. Speaking at a press conference in Moscow in August, he said that the cost of the transfer to digital is estimated at $3 billion.

In May 2002, RTR and another state-owned company, Cosmic Communication, began experimenting with digitally broadcasting the Radio Russia, Mayak and Yunost radio stations by satellite across the whole of Russia.

In St. Petersburg, the prospects for the development of digital broadcasting are also good. "We have plans to broadcast Russian digital television, and to take part in the creation of special digital channels in cooperation with television companies," Volobuyev said. "After all, digital television networks are the only way for television in general to develop."

At present, the United Kingdom has the world's most highly developed digital-television system. According to Telemedium statistics, 2.5 million homes, of a total of 22 million, receive digital broadcasts provided by three companies that operate in the country. The second largest market is Sweden, followed by Spain, Finland, Holland and Germany.