(11 March 2010 7:40 pm)

MUMBAI: Technicolor has announced that it has signed a contract with TV Globo in Brazil to provide HD set top boxes, bringing the digital TV Globo signal via C-band satellite to rural areas throughout the country.

Part of a privately owned Brazilian media Group, with a network of 122 television stations, among owned and operated and affiliated broadcasters, TV Globo is both producer and broadcaster of the most compelling TV content countrywide, generating over 2,500 hours of programming each year.

This deal positions Technicolor as the first digital HD set-top box provider certified by TV Globo for reception of their digital C-band signal.

Technicolor senior VP, connect division Georges Laplanche says, “The decision to open up digital TV to rural Brazil creates a massive market opportunity for TV Globo. Brazil is a continental country and most people who live in rural areas use analogue receivers to access television programming, all of which must gradually migrate to digital. We are delighted to have been chosen as the first supplier certified by TV Globo.”

TV Globo director of transmission technology Liliana Nakonechnyj says, “We have a great commitment to serving the Brazilian population with high quality free-to-air local television programming, and are confident that Technicolor’s leading HD Set-top-box technologies will enable us to offer a high quality digital service to the extensive rural areas of our country”.

TV Globo and its affiliates already transmit digital terrestrial TV in over 20 Brazilian metropolitan areas. The move to extend into rural areas via digital satellite transmission marks TV Globo’s strategy to offer digital TV to all households in Brazil, whether covered by the digital terrestrial signals transmitted by an affiliated broadcaster or outside the urban perimeter.

The new Technicolor set-top box will incorporate a GPS unit which identifies whether it is located in rural area; in this case, it will receive and decode TV Globo’s digital satellite signal (which will be known as TVDR - Digital Television for Rural Areas).

In the beginning, TVDR will be launched featuring only one national digital signal in standard definition (SD), but regional signals will replace the national, region by region, and the signals will migrate to HD.