Commonwealth digital broadcasting switchover forum 2015 annemarie meijer
1. 1
How Africa Utilises Digital
Terrestrial Television
Annemarie Meijer
Commonwealth Digital
Broadcasting
Switchover Forum
17-19 February 2015, Johannesburg, South Africa
2. 2
A Quick Word on the Analog Switch Off
• Analog Switch Off (ASO) for
UHF + VHF per 17 June 2015
• For VHF per 17 June 2020
Analogue TV frequency bands :
• UHF Bands IV & V: 470-862 MHz
• VHF Band III: 174-230 MHz
Source: Cristian Gomez - ITU
3. 3
Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
Driven by Private Media Owners
More than one DTT operator active
in Dark Blue countries – Q4-2014
Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe
currently only GOtv is active in the
Purple countries. This is expected to
change with StarTimes entering in
2015.
4. 4
Trends in Africa Smart Screen Adoption
Other routes for Digital Broadcast Media to reach users?
• Low cost – sub US$ 50 – smartphones
and tablets now entering the market.
• 20% of all African Mobile users had a
smartphone by year end 2014
• They are a “First Screen” for many Africans.
• But also ‘Media screens without a tuner’.
• Smart-devices allow for media consumption,
but NOT linear TV ( yet! ).
• Bottlenecks: Access to Electricity, and with
current devices, to Broadcast TV content
5. 5
The Role That Satellite Plays
• For cost-efficient national coverage of
DTT an overlay with DTH makes most
sense.
• Satellite already used for distribution of
(regionalised) broadcast signals to DTT
towers.
• C-band is often used in Africa because
it provides a reliable way to deal with
“rain fade”
• Satellite may also play a role in
distributing non-linear content of digital
media to smart devices in Africa.