Brazil 4D

Abstract

In this chapter, we will debate about the free-to-air model of interactive digital television (iTVD) developed in Brazil, about its characteristics, and the interactive digital audiovisual content produced for this type of television. In the Introduction, we reflect about different aspects of the social and economic uneven development of Latin America and Caribean, especially in Brazil. We also discuss about the concepts of innovation, strategic development, and how we believe that it is necessary to include communication, education and culture inside the debates about innovation and technology. After this, we show the Brazilian model of free-to-air digital television, a unique model in the world, because of its middleware Ginga, a Brazilian technology developed in open source, that permits free interactivity, mobility, interoperability, multiprogramming, accessibility and portability for everyone. In the third part, we focus on the BRAZIL 4D Project, developed by Communications Company Brazil (EBC), a public company, using free-to-air interactive digital public television and telecommunications to offer information, fiction, and public services to low-income population through remote control. This Project contributes to the social and digital inclusion of Brazilian people without access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), about 14.5 million of families or 60 million of low-income people.