The three-day Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) 7th Annual Digital Broadcasting Switchover Forum (DBFS) got underway on 22 February at the Protea Hotel Balalaika Sandton in Johannesburg.
Over 100 delegates – broadcasters, regulators, engineers, content producers and government representatives from various African countries – registered for the event.
South Africa’s Minister of Communications Dina Pule was unable to attend the opening day as her presence was required at the reading of the Budget Vote Speech in Cape Town. CTO Chief Operating Officer Bashir Patel noted that Minister Pule had indicated she would attend the DBSF at a later date.
The Department of Communications (DOC) was represented by its Deputy Director General, Gift Buthelezi, who said: “The timing for the DBSF is great as it follows on directly from the recent World Radio Communications Conference (WRC) in Geneva. We hope that this summit will assist us to move to the next level of migration. South Africa’s digital migration project has proved challenging in that there’s been a bit of back and forth movement, but we’ve progressed a great deal.’
Coincidentally, further amendments to the Digital Migration Policy, subsequent to the amendment dated 7 February this year, were published on 22 February.
In formally opening the DBSF, Patel noted that the first time he’d attended the DBSF on behalf of the CTO was in 2008. “Since then I’ve tried to monitor migration progress on the continent. Every year the DBSF theme has been “Progress.’ In 2012 our theme is “Protecting and Engaging the Viewer’. All of us sitting here are users and consumers of TV. The bottom line is how is the consumer best served? We have to convince viewers that the migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT) will bring them many more channels and superior picture quality. But how will consumers protect themselves?
“Is Africa now in the last stage as we head for 2015, set by the International Communications Union (ITU) as the deadline for the switch off of the analogue signal in Africa? South Africa is on the final furlong to migration but what about its neighbours? Migration should be a regional strategy. Governments should look at economies of scale, shared infrastructure, common standards and interoperability of boxes.’
Patel stressed the importance of creating the right environment for migration. This includes: the liberalisation of the broadcasting sector (results in multiple operators); an open market competition (facilitates economic growth); universal approach to regulation (an open and non-discriminatory access); open standards (a common set top box); local content strategies (leads to job creation, content production and advertising opportunities); diverse range of broadcasting services (local, regional and national); and new technologies which result in more convergence.
For in-depth coverage of the DBSF see the March and April issues of Screen Africa.
