Digital TV: What other nations have done

By Isaac Meso and John Kamau

Kenya may brace herself to the new ideal of the world operation that is digital migration, but there lies a lot of challenges in the way she is implementing the same, thus the opposition.

These challenges are at most the mark in the world in which she will be ranked to be either a failure or success.

The first hurdle is that many target audiences remain in the dark as to how the shift will benefit them, with analysts blaming extremely poor public awareness campaigns for the confusion in the country.

As of yesterday, a larger number of Kenyans did not know what Free to Air and Pay TV is. Some ended up returning the boxes after they learnt that what was on offer was to be paid for after the lapse of the offer period in order to down grade to the free to air channels. Consumers reportedly felt uncertain about which STB to purchase, and there was a perception that vendors were incorrectly advising consumers. Lessons drawn from Tanzania is that the country carried out a massive campaign in the capital city Dar es Salaam before the switch off and has allowed the media owners to run their channels on both platforms.

“A positive result of the swirl of publicity around switch-off in Tanzania’s largest city was that viewers in other cities became aware of the switch off, leading to increased STB sales in those areas prior to their switch-off,” said Analysis Mason, an institution that reviews digital migration in the world.

The country is also allowed to have three licences on the digital platform. She placed it that there would be three multiplex licences; one public and two commercial, the opposite of Kenya where the regulator has allowed only two licences, thus barring the major media houses to hold a licence.

The danger of this, as posed to the case in Tanzania, Pan African Group which holds Star Times may take the advantage as the sole commercial distributer of the airwaves and increase the charges of transmission just as it and others did in Tanzania.

Mason said: “Above all, Tanzania serves as a reminder that Digital Migration is primarily an exercise in changing consumer behaviour, rather than being a purely technical, regulatory or policymaking exercise. Consumer education must be a key focus of any DSO.”

Thorny issue

In Uganda, implementation of digital migration kicked off early this year. But the analogue signals, according to the Uganda Communication Commission, will continue being distributed alongside digital signals. The switch to digital signal has been spread over a period of one year. This means that those without Set Top Boxes have at least a year to acquire them.

The Uganda Communication Commission has also made it mandatory for every Pay TV to carry free to air channels on their platforms. Moreover, the free to air channels must be carried on their platforms even if one’s subscription to the Pay TV has expired.

The country’s Digital Migration Policy also states that the government would subsidise Set Top Boxes to customers. However, like in Kenya, this has not been implemented because those wishing to purchase decoders have to buy them from Pay TV operators like StarTimes, Multichoice and Zuku.

The other thorny issue in the digital migration in Uganda has been the policy that provides for Uganda Broadcasting Corporation to be the sole signal distributor, a thing that has not gone down well with stakeholders.

They argue that there could be conflict of interest since UBC will be a signal distributor while at the same time a content provider.

Godfrey Mutabazi, the Executive Director of UCC, downplayed the fears saying signal distribution should not be a subject for debate because it is “a simple issue that can be resolved.”

Ghana is expected to migrate from analogue to digital terrestrial television in December next year, ahead of the 2015 deadline.

Speaking to the media in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Communications, Victoria Hammah, said the government will support those whose analogue television sets will be affected by the digital migration with set top boxes to enable them to receive signals.

Senegal’s process of transition to terrestrial digital broadcasting, which began in 2010, is due to be completed nationwide in 2013, the government said, adding that it is a challenge and a commitment the country must win.

Mauritius started carrying out surveys as early as 1999, around when it validated the adoption of DVB-T and of the more widely accepted MPEG 2 digital broadcast format. The island nation then set up its institutions, including the Independent Broadcasting Authority, to look at the regulatory framework for private radio as well as future television developments.

Dark spots

In 2003, the Mauritius Multicarrier Company Limited became the sole signal distributor and deployed the DTT infrastructure in the country while carrying out tests, which proved that DTT could cover almost the whole country with very few signal coverage dark spots.

The country was ready for its first DTT transmissions a year later, but postponed this to 2005 due to a general election.

“The conversion from analogue to digital was done in a very nonchalant and undramatic way. The average Mauritian viewer was not made to realise that he had a Damocles sword over his head and that a deadline had been fixed for the switchover because there was a dual illumination period which is still ongoing,” Trilock Dwarka the ICT Authority chair in Mauritious said.

The island now has three multiplex operators to distribute digital signals, and projects that 70-80 per cent of Mauritian viewers have migrated.

The road map to shift to digital world as it seem might be blink future to those who cannot afford the Set Top Boxes and the TVs if the government does not intervene in time, but also the challenge of E waste is something that is unforeseen if the millions of the household appliances become obsolete and are dumped.

According to estimates by the National Environment Management Authority, 11,400 tonnes of e-waste is generated annually in Kenya from refrigerators, 2,800 tonnes from TVs, 2,500 tonnes from personal computers, 500 tonnes from printers and 150 tonnes from mobile phones.

On the other hand, the mass flow study carried out by Kenya ICT Action Network show that

more than 1,513 tonnes of electronics enter the market and thus if disposal of the same is dismal, there poses a challenge to country.

The consumer, in addition to receiving 1,513 tonnes, also receives 151.3 tonnes from the second hand market. From the Nema statistics, Kenyan consumers are likely to dispose-off 1,210.4 tonnes in the second-hand market; 18.6 tonnes to collectors or as general waste which is sent to refurbishers and then this is sent back to the country in another form and disposes-off 18.6 tonnes directly to recyclers.

Environmental hazards

If this is not handled well, the country poses her citizens to dangerous environmental hazards due to pollution.

It is projected that sub-Saharan Africa will have 33.8 million DTT (both pay and free-to-air) homes by 2018, from 4.6 million at the end of last year, according to Digital TV Research Ltd.

There are approximately 90 million TV households in the region, including North Africa, with this number expected to grow to 124 million by 2015, further data from Dataxis Intelligence and the Television Bureau of Advertising added.

Its availability and perceived high pricing has dogged the uptake by consumers already low on information about the need to migrate.

All are agreed on the need for African countries to migrate, but to also guide their audiences at every step, including setting up hotlines and help desks and carrying out massive public awareness, and even outsourcing this if needed.