Conference worry as clock ticks on digital migration for Africa

Many African countries may miss the 2015 deadline for switching over from analogue to digital broadcasting. Though some countries have started the process to digital broadcasting transition, but international experts at Digital Dialogue held last week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, were concerned on the frail process by some African countries to meeting the 2006 Geneva agreement, which spelt out switching off of analogue broadcasting system on June 17, 2015, for digital broadcasting.

The dialogue with speakers and participants from Africa and Europe made far reaching recommendations to slacking countries to speed up the process to obviate any likely consequences as a result of not switching over to digital broadcasting on that date.

The seemingly drawback by many African countries, including Nigeria, in meeting the deadline appears to be undertone statement to justify their earlier demand at the International Telecommunication Union meeting in Geneva, when the continent representatives demanded for about 15 years period. The way it looks, it appears African countries were forced to agree on the date.

Even when they finally signed to migrate, most of the countries might have under-estimated the cost implications, said Daniel Onyango Obam, who is actively involved in the development of the digital broadcasting plan for Kenya.

“The cost is massive as many countries did not initially understand the cost implications of the migration to digital broadcasting in spite of the inherent benefits,” Obam said. The various delegations to the conference came to share experiences on how some European countries achieved their migration before 2015. “We are sharing experiences and we can use their experiences to tweak our own processes back home,” Obam said, promising that Kenya will definitely switch off analogue in Nairobi in December 13, this year, with other cities following later before 2014.

Nigeria, rest of Africa

Nigeria had earlier planned to switch off analogue in 2012, but shifted the arrangement to 2015. But it was after the digital dialogue in Lagos mid last year that the country set up a Digiteam for planning and recommendations due to the discovered enormous work involved. The government had earlier drafted a ‘white paper’ on the implementation of the transition from analogue to digital, but the public who are the policy target is almost ignorant of the transition framework up till today. Nigeria with its vast size may switch on digital in 2015, but may not switch off analogue.

For Kenya, after missing previous self dates of June 2012, December 2012 and September 2013, the country has made what it called a final resolution to switch off analogue on December 13, 2013, with other cities following subsequently.

At the conference sponsored by MultiChoice, owner of pay-TV DStv, Obam from Kenya advised other African countries to set firm date for the analogue switch off and live by the date. It was learnt at the conference that among other African countries, Malawi and Tanzania are in the fore, working hard to live up to the date.

For Gerhard Petrick, who is an active member of Southern Africa Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA) South Africa, the rest of Africa need to do something fast on the migration. He told the participants that South Africa’s relevant ministry is working with other stakeholders to hopefully meet the deadline. He believed in great mass education as there will be chaos when people are switched off and don’t receive signals and they hadn’t prior information on the arrangement. The enthusiasm to see the TVs work is contagious. Petrick further said that partial migration was worse than not migrating at all.

Edmund Fianko, manager at the Ghana National Communications Authority and secretary to the Digital Broadcasting Migration Committee, explained the West African regional move to co-operate on the migration. This is due to inherent economic benefits and economic scale involved. He believed that regional integration would reduce the cost of implementing the DTT.

Fianko however believed that meeting the deadline will be a challenge unless African countries are seriously committed to it and do something drastic. Among the 16 West African countries, only four of them Niger, Nigeria, Guinea and Senegal are the ones that have met the DTT move. Presently, the West African officials are holding series of meetings on the march to the digitalisation.

UK migration experience

In 2005, Britain created an independent, not-for-profit company to lead the digital TV switchover. Shareholders were the broadcasters and multiplex operators with BBC Charter or licence obligations to achieve switchover. Mike Hughes, principal consultant and co-founder of Transit, a broadcast consultancy company in the UK, told the conference that the body had the obligation to co-ordinate the roll-out of the high power digital terrestrial television network, inform viewers about what to do and when and liaise with retailers, manufacturers, aerial installers, housing providers and local government.

Hughes, who said it cost Britain over £1.5 billion to migrate, said the money was spent on communication which cost about £201 funded primarily from the BBC Licence Fee, operations budget was about £31 million, £603 million was spent to subsidy for the less privileged in obtaining Set Top Boxes, while £700 was spent for DTT upgrade.

To Hughes, Britain target was to get the buy-in of the consumers and educate them on the meaning of migration, its intended benefits and how to encourage them to use the technology. The media which was earlier critical of the migration later bought into the idea and began to support it.

Benefits of digital migration

When countries migrate, it will automatically free up spectrums for auction by the government. The new system is also expected to create more frequency spectrums, which means more TV and radio channels for broadcasting and communication activities. It will also provide sharper pictures and clearer sounds, clarity of television, opportunity to content developers to develop and sell contents and advertising revenue.

Spectrum is the space which is used to distribute all mobile telephony, internet, broadcasting, satellite and mobile technology.

Justifying the benefits of migration for the UK economy, Ana Aguilar, a director in the economic consulting group of Deloitte in London, said at the conference that in the UK, in spite of the role of internet, TV advertising market had remained resilient due to digital migration effect. “There is possibility of further growth in advertising market as TV households continue to grow.”

The conference was sceptical many African countries will not meet the deadline in spite of various African governments’ promises of achieving the target. Obam said the longer the countries wait, the longer they miss out on the inherent benefits such as many contents and channels that will emerge. The digital dividend is also prime platform for rolling out mobile broad band, he said, saying “without broadband you cannot experience economic development taking off rapidly. If you don’t migrate it means the frequency bands will not be available for allocation for broadband. When that happens, you miss out on the digital benefits on TV side and miss out on the mobile broad band.”

Consequences of not switching over

Apart from missing out on the economic benefits, if a country does not switch over and the neighbour country switches to digital broadcasting in 2015, the hesitant analogue operating country cannot complain if the digital signals from its neighbour country interferes with its analogue. This may also create challenge to security communication equipment in the analogue operating country.

The situation now is that if a neighbour’s signal interferes with another, the victim country can complain but after 2015 it cannot complain and the later country is at obligation to shut down its network.

Role of media in migration

Significant to speakers at the third Digital Dialogue series was the role of the media in pushing governments to understand the benefits of the digital migration. This is due to the inherent benefits. The media also has the role to equip the populace in understanding the process and their buy-in into the migration.

The conference gave the media the licence to ask questions on clear steps by governments to meeting the deadline. For instance, in Nigeria there are not very known clear steps and where there exist, they are not well communicated to the people. In Britain, according to Hughes, there was partnership with the news media on news, advertisement and supplementary analysis towards ensuring that the people understood the migration and the use of the equipment.

According to the speakers, if government officials through the media understand the inherent gains of the migration, they will even encourage their various governments to borrow money to ensure the migration.

In his view earlier, Jenkins Alumona, digital transition expert and convener of the dialogue, said the objective of the conference was to unlock and explore the digital migration process, which has begun around the world including Africa, “The continent is a part of the digital revolution that is set to bring with it more choice and more value to television viewers.”

By: Daniel Obi