Phase 2 of the Caribbean Spectrum Management Project Meeting #5 of 2012 (re Digital Broadcasting Switchover)

The CTU has organised and/or collaborated in the staging of four meetings so far in 2012 on the issue of digital broadcasting switchover and the digital dividend in the Caribbean towards a goal of developing a draft policy framework on these issues by the end of 2012:

27 January 2012: a preliminary meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad of Caribbean ICT and broadcasting stakeholders to highlight the urgency of addressing this issue and to call to action the relevant stakeholders, in particular the broadcast service operators.

2-3 April 2012: a second meeting in Port of Spain which provided specific information on the considerations and approaches to switchover, views from regulators and opportunities for feedback from relevant stakeholders.

21-25 May 2012: a workshop and frequency coordination meeting in Barbados in collaboration with the ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau, to build capacity in the region for managing the transition and for maximizing benefits of the digital dividend as well as to undertake frequency coordination work among key stakeholders in order to facilitate harmonized allocation of the relevant spectrum for digital broadcasting in the Caribbean. This meeting produced a report for the attention of the CTU’s General Conference of Ministers.

13-14 August 2012: DBSF 2012, a forum in collaboration with the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, the Commonwealth Broadcasters Association and the Caribbean Broadcasters Union to involve regional broadcasters in transition planning and foster harmonisation of technical and business approaches to switchover and allocation of relevant spectrum. This forum developed a checklist of relevant issues to be addressed, noted that broadcasters were struggling to make their business cases to justify switchover and identified a need for research papers and business model evaluations to guide decision-making among regional broadcasters.

This fifth meeting on the issue is intended to consolidate the outcomes and outstanding matters of the previous four meetings, discuss and identify common and divergent positions among regional stakeholders and begin drafting the policy framework around which Caribbean approaches might be harmonised.