Unlike in the United States, digitalization of terrestrial TV broadcasting in Japan will have peculiar difficulties caused by the tightness of bandwidth for TV broadcasting.

MPT announced last October the schedule for terrestrial DTV introduction. In the plan, MPT urged the industry to begin test broadcasting in the Tokyo metropolitan area in 2000, to start regular broadcasting in three major cities (Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya) by the end of 2003 and to cover the rest of Japan by key networks by the end of 2006.

Analog broadcasting will be simulcast until 2010 and will be terminated if DTV coverage reaches 100 percent and the penetration of receivers hits 85 percent. To carry out the rollout according to schedule, MPT announced a draft plan of channel assignments at the end of last year.

Key stations in Japan now use VHF bands for analog TV broadcasting, and many small local stations use UHF bands. Nationwide, only channel 13 (UHF) is left unused, reported MPT. The ministry expects that changes in the analog bands (channels) will be inevitable to make room for digital broadcasting.

According to MPT's draft channel plan, DTV will in principle use low bands of UHF from channel 13 to channel 32, a spot where there is a little bit of room. One channel has a 6-MHz capability, allowing HDTV service. Each relay station will use the frequency band of its parent station, which will be realized by SFN (single frequency network) technology.

But in some districts in Japan, even low-UHF bands are used up for analog TV broadcasting. Moving these analog bands to higher-UHF frequencies is how MPT intends to secure bands for DTV.

On the consumer end, the move will necessitate resetting TV receivers and replacing antennas with ones that enable wider UHF-band reception. Without these procedures, about 10 million households out of 45 million total in Japan will no longer be able to pick up analog channels when DTV broadcasting begins.

MPT projects that CATV will penetrate about 50 percent of households by 2010. Since CATV operators can take care of their subscribers, the ministry subtracted half of the 10 million households potentially affected. The cost of measures necessary for the remaining 5 million households could range from $420 million to $910 million, MPT calculated.

That amount swelled to about four times larger than MPT's initial estimation, creating a stir in the related industries. An executive of Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) suggested putting off the start of terrestrial DTV, saying, "The digitalization plan needs some revision." He said, however, that his comment is not NHK's official opinion.

An NHK spokesman said, "we cannot make an official comment because we are making our own data about the cost. MPT proposed to have a meeting to discuss this issue, so we will use our data at the discussion."

Meanwhile, engineers at the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB), consisting of 197 companies, made their own estimation of the changeover costs and found them lower than MPT's projections. According to NAB, about one sixth of Japan's households-7.64 million-will have to take some measures against an analog channel move.

Assuming it costs from $44 to have an electrician change the channel settings to $263 to have an electrician change an antenna, NAB engineers see a total cost reaching $1.3 billion. Furthermore, analog transmitters at the stations need to be adjusted, at an estimated cost of $188 million.

In total, "over $1.8 billion will be needed for the move of analog channels," said Kazuo Machida, general manager of the planning department at NAB. "The money is not for digitalization itself, but just to secure bands for DTV. The government could resolve this difficulty with some financial aid."

"To prepare the environment quickly for digital TV is essential," said an MPT official. "With the shift toward DTV, it is naturally expected that there are some hurdles." This issue won't cause a delay in implementation, he said.

MPT plans to hammer out the final channel plan through discussion with broadcasters by summer, and to be ready for licensing broadcasters' DTV bands for test broadcasting in 2000.