A big number
of African countries have their Television broadcast and received in
analog mode over the terrestrial air waves. With digital
transmission, the picture and audio of the television station are
converted into corresponding binary form (ones and zeros), then
subjected to a number of digital manipulations before being
transmitted.
Digital
transmission allows for better use of available frequency resources
allowing other services to be transmitted over the same airwaves at
the same time freeing up frequencies for other services. Terrestrial
digital television encourages
an increase in the number of
programmes available, improves
quality and accessibility and creates
new media services.
It also provides for better Television viewing
experience as it provides better picture and audio quality. It adds
ability for interactive TV and at the same time flexibility to the
broadcaster.
Today, these
various benefits of digital transmission make a move to digital
broadcasting
(known as digital migration) imperative for television
and radio.
This is why the International Telecommunications Union
recommended, in the Regional
Radiocommunications Conference,
2006(RRC-06),
all countries to move to digital broadcasting by
the
year 2015.
From this conference, it was resolved that the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) would not protect any analog
Television broadcasting, meaning analog TV signals will be
susceptible to interference from different transmitters thus
suggesting an analog switch off. By analog switch off we mean
stop support for analog transmission and only support (allow)
digital.
To this
note, ITU has provided consulting services for broadcasting
infrastructure development. It has developed reports and guidelines
needed for the Analog to digital transition.
The ITU has also provided training in different places and provided
close cooperation with regional broadcasting organisation through
regular workshops and seminars. It has performed spectrum allocations
and wave propagation recommendations, provided a white paper about
the transition from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting and examined terrestrial digital broadcasting technologies through
research on the topic.
Africa as a
continent, and the African Union in particular the African
Telecommunications Union (ATU), has Developed a roadmap on digital
migration that involved frequency coordination on transition,
timelines and way forward to make sure the deadline by ITU is beaten.
ATU has developed a Digital Migration and spectrum policy through a
number of consultation meetings and in collaboration with ITU,
regional telecommunications bodies and commercial firms in the
telecommunications market. It has also held a number of follow-up
meetings
with different regional bodies to monitor progress by different
regional bodies and independent nations and harmonise systems for a
smooth beating of the ITU deadline.
It
however looks like over 42 African countries
out of the 54 are unlikely going to meet the ITU deadline. In the
East African Community, Burundi, Uganda and Southern Sudan are listed
among these countries. 35 countries had not announced the schedule
timetable of events, four countries were still affected by Civil
unrest, seven had come up with policy papers and or a Task force as
to this effect, four were above the schedule of the policy by at
least 6 months, six had piloted the policy, nine had launched with
only one completed (Mauritius)
by 29th
November 2011.
Uganda as a
developing country, formulated a body (Digital Migration Working
Group) that spearheaded the process of policy formulation under the
ministry of Information and communications technology. This body
finalised on the Digital Migration Policy in April 2011
which policy instituted another body (Digital Migration Task Force)
tasked to run the process of the digital migration. The government
through the mentioned bodies started a campaign of massive public
awareness through different existing television channels supported by
the Uganda communications Commission. The switch over time table was
also generated which was supposed to have three years of
dual-Illumination with the national analog switch-off date set for
Dec-2012.
Challenges
to speedy digital migration
Just like
other countries in Africa, Uganda faced a problem of financial
limitations, with questions of where were the funds going to be
received from. Well knowing that the transition takes at least some
years and costs so much and immense influence on society, economy and
industries, Uganda was not ready for this challenge. Politics in most
of the African countries has been a problem to an extend some
countries have not had a running government for a number of years.
Policy frame work alignment was also a problem in some African
countries where it took too much time to come up with a working
policy and even after this policy, the deadline was near coming.
National priority remained a challenge is some countries where this
matter never made to the top five of national discussion items in
some countries. Stakeholder awareness remains a challenge and a
number of people are not aware of what is going on.
It is
however urged that some Countries can remain in the analog TV
transmission even after 2015 basing on the little publicized fact
that the 2006 treaty allows for
an additional five years for a total
of 30 African nations beyond
the 2015 cut-off point.
(Most Latin American countries, incidentally,
have agreed to a
switch-off of analogue TV transmissions around
2020). In other
words, more than two-thirds of the countries on the
African
continent are exempt from the 2015 deadline, and instead
have a 2020
switch-off date, even though some have voluntarily
committed to the
earlier time in agreements in regional fora and/
or through domestic
policy decisions.
Even still the RRC-06 decision stops ITU from
intervening to protect
a country’s TV broadcast signals in any
instances where these
are being swamped by a neighbour’s, unless
those signals have
been switched to digital. In reality, however,
this issue of signal
swamping or cross-border interference with
signals is not a
serious issue in most African countries. On the
contrary, huge
swathes of the African population still do not even
receive TV
broadcasting signals of any sort, or at best can pick up
a single
national TV channel. In other cases, African audiences
welcome
spill-over across borders, which may offer a little more
choice.
The point then is that African countries can probably still
continue
analogue TV long after deadline without really any
incurring serious
disadvantages in terms of aggressive neighbouring
broadcasters
bothering their national signal space. The few disputes
that may
occur will not necessarily even require ITU intervention to
resolve.
Successful
Migration requires
Strong
leadership of government, Firm decision of analogue TV switch-off,
Close cooperation of Regulator and market parties, Clear and timely
regulatory framework and Adequate information and assistance to
viewers.
A group of
people recommend that satellite coverage would provide a cheaper
short to medium term alternative as countries are sorting out their
houses to get ready for 2015. Countries to subsidise decoders which
cost significantly high could also enable the process. Since in some
of African countries TV is still under a government monopoly, opening
up the business to private investors to allow innovations and
investment in the move.
It is from
this note that one wonder whether African countries are doing enough
to get ready for the analog switch-off. What do you think should be
done for these countries to be ready for the deadline. Do you think
African countries will continue with analog TV broadcasting even
after 2015?
Your view.
