What’s the Digital Power Plan? Costa Rica will replace all the non-digital broadcasting machines with digital broadcasting ones in December this year. The plan will improve the quality of image and sound as well as the coverage of the TV stations in the country.
There’s no need to buy a new television; but many families will need a decoder and an antenna instead to watch the 44 local television channels, from channel 7 to 51 transmitted with a Japanese – Brazilian ISDB-Tb television signal.
Why is it expected that this plan creates more job opportunities? Because new TV stations will start operating, since, with these changes, a TV channel may be extended to four, due to a better use of the radioelectric spectrum, which is the generation of waves used for telecommunication and broadcasting.
According to a local newspaper, 10 big television businesses will take control of 108 out of the existing 152 free-access television channels, because of the arrival of digital technology on December 15th. These television companies, some of which are religious, will obtain the exclusive rights of 71% of national radio spectrum.
Above and beyond that, the local audiovisual industry has been evolving in the last years and it is expected that new TV businesses appear because of the demand caused by the digital power plan. The Costa Rican television industry generated over 293,800 million colones in 2015.
Gainers
According to an analysis published by the Ministry of Culture and Youth, television industry produced $520 million in Costa Rica. The best producers were the cable TV companies which got a profit of over $336 million. The Digital Power Plan will require new TV content to improve the profits during 2015 when they made around $120 million. That year, the audiovisual production and distribution companies alongside the cinema exhibition market generated revenues of $42 million while the Costa Rican cinema produced $20 million and the digital animation business $5 million.
“Audiovisual job-related are increasing in number since the income of this sector has been rising at the rapid pace. Audiovisual companies have made in the neighborhood of $90 thousand million colones in the last 5 years. Digital animation, videos, multimedia, cinema, television, radio and news agencies are definitely a source of employment” – said Anahí Moyano, head of the Culture and Economy Unit of the Ministry of Culture, during her speech at the Central American Forum on Digital Television TVmorfosis.
New goals to reach
Some companies are already working to air interactive programs while others will broadcast more stand-ups and funny videos. With this project and by associating with other public and private institutions, local broadcasters are expecting to get more profits to produce original TV programs for the Costa Rican public. Some company owners and digital animators, however, believe that the key is the use of networking.
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