Last week the Brazilian Minister of Communications, Helio Costa announced that Argentina had selected SBTVD as its terrestrial DTV standard, according to Presna Latina and Relecturas.
SBTVD is the Japanese ISDB-T system with modifications and enhancements added by Brazil. Argentina's Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner signed the agreement at the Special Summit of the Union of South American Nations in Bariloche on Friday. Peru recently announced it would be using the SBTVD standard. Costa said negotiations are well advanced for using SBTVD in Chile and Ecuador. With Argentina now onboard, three of the continent’s four largest countries will now wave the SBTVD banner. Elsewhere in Latin America, the U.S. standard--ATSC--has been adopted by Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador; Columbia, Panama and Uruguay have chosen DVB-T.
Another article, on www.telaviva.com.br compares the method used to set royalties and fees for the US ATSC terrestrial standard with those for DVB and SBTVD. In the article, US consultant Ron Gliden is quoted saying (translated from Portugese to English), "Brazil was the only country that instead of accepting the royalty charges based on reasonable and non discriminatory prices, decided to negotiate the prices beforehand. And most importantly, giving preference to open standards."
