Most of Africa to miss DSO deadline
June 12, 2015
By Chris Forrester
The adoption of digital transmission by most African countries is a complete mess, and only two nations will meet next week’s June 17th digital switch over deadline.
The admission came from Beijing at the 5th African Digital TV Development Seminar, organised by StarTimes (itself a major player in introducing digital TV in Africa).
The president of StarTimes, Xinxing Pang, admitted that “Africa was lagging behind”. The seminar heard that Tanzania and Kenya were the only two nations which could claim to have met the deadline, and in Kenya’s case only some 70 per cent of the nation will be covered by this coming August.
Nigeria has recently asked the ITU to extend its deadline until – at the earliest – December 2016. The Director General of Nigeria’s Broadcasting Commission says that promised cash to make the conversion complete never came through from the old administration led by Goodluck Jonathan simply never arrived. Nigeria has completed about 22 per cent of the country for digital transmission.