The Dominican Republic has joined Canada, El Salvador, Mexico, the United States, South Korea and Honduras in adopting the Digital Television Standard developed by the U.S.-based Advanced Television Systems Committee as its government-mandated standard for digital terrestrial television broadcasting. The Caribbean nation’s analog broadcasting system will be shut down in September 2015.
The ATSC standard adoption decree was issued by Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez last week and was announced by Dr. José Rafael Vargas, president of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL). The board of directors of INDOTEL, the regulatory body for telecommunications in the Dominican Republic, unanimously approved a report submitted by its technical staff recommending adoption of the ATSC Digital Television Standard.
ATSC DTV standards specify applications for high-definition television, mobile digital television broadcasting, multiple simultaneous programs of standard-definition television, multichannel surround-sound digital audio, and a multitude of additional data broadcasting and interactive services. Millions of ATSC receivers have been deployed in the United States.
