Success Story
Telecommunications Equipment

Adoption of U.S.-Developed Standard Helps U.S. Industry Compete Abroad

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ATSC Adoption Makes TV Tech Sales to Six Markets Easier for U.S. Firms

The switch from relatively fuzzy analog television broadcasting and image display to high definition (HDTV) is now taken for granted. For most countries it happened in the early 2000s. Many do not realize that there are four different HDTV standards: the European-developed DVB-T, Japan’s ISDB-T, China’s DTMB, and ATSC, developed by the United States and South Korea.

ATSC Forum, a U.S. industry group, recognized that it would be easier for U.S. firms to sell the same TV equipment sold in the United States to customers in countries that also use ATSC. Some countries, like Canada and South Korea, were already going to be early adopters. But others had not yet committed.

European, Japanese, and Chinese groups competed with ATSC for individual countries to adopt their standard. Japan had an almost ten-year jump on everyone. The Europeans began their work as a multi-country effort that would make broad adoption by even more countries an easier decision. To make matters worse, ATSC Forum had only modest resources. So, it turned to ITA. With $400,000 financial assistance from a Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) award, ATSC Forum launched a three-year campaign in Latin America to convince countries to adopt the ATSC standard. As a result, six additional countries in the region did adopt the standard.

Joint Effort: ITA and U.S. Industry

With its network of posts in embassies and consulates in the region, ITA’s Commercial Service worked with ATSC Forum to arrange briefings, technology demonstrations, and advocacy visits. ITA also coordinated with ATSC Forum in government bilateral and multilateral standards discussions.

The co-branded effort by ITA and ATSC Forum increased the number of adopting countries by six. In terms of population, this means the combined size of the markets where ATSC is used for HDTV is 34% greater than it would have been without the MDCP-supported initiative. The first, and largest of these countries, Mexico, posted almost immediate orders worth multiple millions of dollars for U.S.-made equipment after the country adopted ATSC. Engaging in standards advocacy paid off by making U.S. industry more globally competitive.