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Muthambi talks up digital migration

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 30 Sept 2016
Communications minister Faith Muthambi talks about Africa's digital migration progress at a two-day TV summit in Mauritius.
Communications minister Faith Muthambi talks about Africa's digital migration progress at a two-day TV summit in Mauritius.

Department of Communications (DOC) minister Faith Muthambi delivered the keynote address on Africa's progress in the switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television at the first NexTV CEO Africa 2016 summit in Mauritius.

In 2006, countries around the world, including African nations, committed to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) June 2015 deadline to migrate to digital TV.

However, SA is one of the nations that have missed the ITU deadline, with the country's digital migration project progressing at a snail's pace.

Muthambi has defended the DOC's delayed approach in the switch to digital TV, citing a lack of funds for public awareness campaigns as one of the challenges encountered in the digital migration progress.

SA only kicked off the digital migration process last December by prioritising border-lying regions like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) area in the Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Free State and North West.

Yesterday, minister of planning, monitoring and evaluation Jeff Radebe announced the DOC will switch off the analogue transmitter in towns located near the SKA area on 28 October.

According to a statement, the NexTV CEO Africa 2016 is "an exclusive event that brings together the Anglophone and Francophone markets of Sub-Saharan Africa, and offers a unique opportunity to discuss strategic ventures and regulatory issues, and will be a fantastic accelerator for business and for lobbying in the broadcasting industry."

The summit aims to be a platform to reinforce relationships between service providers, telecoms operators, regulators, content providers and distributors, producers, value aggregators and technology providers, the statement adds.

While digital migration will dominate the agenda, delegates will also deliberate on themes such as the state and future of African TV, opportunities presented by digital terrestrial migration in Africa, and the 'Africanisation' of TV content with a focus on sports rights in Africa, localised content for movies and news channel strategies, it notes.

The event concludes today.

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