Six years after Nigeria joined the rest of the world to sign the agreement on digital broadcast migration, the country is yet to make any tangible steps towards the migration. Experts at a digital broadcast conference held in Johannesburg expressed fears that Nigeria and her African counterparts might not meet the 2015 switch-over deadline at the pace they are moving. Catherine Agbo reports.
Digital broadcast migration basically is the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. The decision for this transition was reached at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference held in Geneva, in June 2006, attended by several continents, including Africa, and Nigeria as a country.
At that conference, it was agreed that the journey to digital broadcasting, which began on June 17, 2006, would end on June 17, 2006.
Participants at the conference had agreed that the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting would create new distribution networks and expand the potential for wireless innovation and services and that the digital dividend accruing from efficiency in spectrum usage would allow more channels to be carried across fewer airwaves and lead to greater convergence of services.
It was also deliberated at the ITU conference that the inherent flexibility offered by digital terrestrial broadcasting would support mobile reception of video, internet and multimedia data, making applications, services and information accessible and usable anywhere and at any time and open the door to new innovations such as handheld TV broadcast along with high-definition television, while providing greater bandwidth to existing mobile, fixed and radio navigation services.
In clearer terms, advantages of digital broadcasting over the analogue system are expanded services; higher quality video and audio; greater variety and faster rates of data transmission; consistency of data flows over long distances and more spectrum efficiency, which will bring about more channels.
The UK is the first country in the world to attain the switch this year, after seven years of planning and migration.
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FEC Approves White Paper On Migration
In April 2012, during one of its Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo, the federal government approved the White Paper on the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting in the country with a deadline of January 2015. The migration, he observed, would synchronise Nigeria’s broadcasting system with? global trends.
Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, who spoke to journalists at the end of the meeting, in company with the minister of Communication Technology, Omobolaji Johnson, explained that the migration would deliver signals to television sets in the country and also free more spectrums, in addition to improving signal quality through set-up boxes.
Despite the pronouncement by Nigeria’s federal government on the issue and its seeming preparedness to meet the deadline, fears are rife that the country, and indeed the African continent, is not on the right footing to meeting the deadline.
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Digital Dialogue Conference
This and many more formed the crux of discussions when journalists across the African continent converged on Johannesburg, South Africa for the Digital Dialogue Conference on October 11.
The conference, organised by MultiChoice Africa, had in attendance over 60 journalists from about nine countries across the continent.
Resource persons at the conference were unanimous that hopes of meeting the deadline were shaky just as some of them were categorical that Africa wolud not meet the deadline.
There was a consensus that preparation and implementation processes were near non-existent or slow where they existed, even as majority of Africa’s population were ignorant of the subject (digital migration).
In her lead presentation at the conference, CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc, Vicky Myburg, said that digital migration was transforming the Entertainment and Media (E&M) sector into one of collaborative partnerships in the post-recessionary environment, a trend, she was quick to observe, also put revenues in the sector under pressure, with the shift from higher-priced physical distribution to lower-priced digital distribution.
Managing Director, South African Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA), Koenie Schutte, while presenting a paper, entitled “Preparing for the Transition of TV Broadcasting Services to Digital,” was categorical that Africa would not meet the 2015 deadline but said it was safer for Africa to take longer and get it right.
“Digital broadcast means there will be at least a 36% increase of spectrum and the mobile operators have their eyes on that; not switching will make life very difficult. Not switching to digital will eventually affect the economy, hence, limiting development because of the vast revenue generating opportunities that come with digital,” he added.
Other implications for failure to meet deadline, according to Schutte, include possible interference from neighbouring countries, demands from service providers who have earmarked spectrum and economic loss.
According to him, the transition to digital television transmission is about the consumer and the home environment and all implementation factors must be considered and in place to ensure success.
“Implementation planning is critical, retail and installer capacity is likely to be a key bottleneck/ opportunity to create jobs, content is key to consumer uptake of DTT and successful migration. It is essential that compelling content drives uptake. No compelling content equals to no or slow transition,” he added.
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Why Communication Is Important
While governments may be making silent efforts at meeting the deadline, experts are of the opinion that there has to be a lot more sensitisation on the issue as majority of television households do not understand what digital broadcast transition is all about and are not preparing towards it.
Speaking on the topic, “Effective Public Education for Digital Migration, Beth Thoren of Digital UK, observed that telling people about the transition early would help reduce resistance, even though it was typical for people not to act until later. She also advocated the use of local governments, charities and retailers instead of traditional communications alone, which, she noted, might not work.
She stressed that adequate funding and a good communications strategy were two of the most important required for the switch.
“Too much detail or too technical (the subject) and people will ignore you but don’t simplify so much that you aren’t honest. Reassurance helps engage resisters,” Thoren added.
She advised that, from the UK experience, countries moving to the switchover should expect resistance from all quarters, including the media and parliament.
“The political and media mood shifted significantly during the programme. Following the announcement in 2005, MPs, journalists, consumer groups and media commentators were quick to voice fears about the risks. Digital UK responded to every negative article, but following the successful pilot in 2007, concern steadily reduced,” she added.
She advised countries moving towards the switchover to “make sure you have firm switchover dates and sufficient funding, focus communication on being helpful – not on selling;-? challenge every negative/incorrect story and be honest.”
On his part, digital? migration communication expert, Jenkins Alumona, called on the Nigerian government to? take the entire process more seriously if the country must enjoy the benefits that come with the process, which include freeing frequencies and sale of spectrum, among others.
“I believe government needs to take the digital migration process more seriously and take a lead from what companies like Multichoice are doing. One of the most vital aspects of the process is communication. Our more than 150 million people and our more than 20 million TV households need information and education on what digital migration is and how it will work and the time to start is now.
“Government has huge financial benefits from the sale of free spectrum and so should ensure the people understand exactly what is happening,” Alumona added.
He said it was imperative that consumers were aware of what was happening as this would help them in making a choice of the kind of television sets to acquire to save money.
M-NET Technical Director, David Hagen, listed seven key issues: cost, content, conformance, coverage, communication, cooperation and consumer, which he terms the seven C’s critical to the migration.
He said African countries appeared to be lost over what they had to do as most of them were still going round in circles in terms of chosing technology three years to the deadline, but? he advised that countries must know how many television sets they would be catering for in the switch.
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