Need to speed up migration to digital TV

BY BUSINESS REPORTER.

EAST African Community (EAC) Partner States have been asked to speed up migration to digital TV broadcasting.

Regional ministers in-charge of communications also said technology developments for digital broadcast receivers should be strictly monitored, with a view to developing receiver specifications that minimise the cost of digital broadcast migration.

The ministers also urged Partner States to consider zero-rating duty on Set Top Boxes as a means of accelerating digital broadcast migration programmes, and directed the Secretariat to submit this recommendation to the ministers of finance for consideration.

At their 9th Meeting of Sectoral Council on Transport, Communications and Meteorology (TCM) held in Arusha, the ministers reviewed implementation progress of projects and plans in, among others, roads, railways, civil aviation, maritime transport and meteorology sub-sectors.

Also discussed were developments in the communications sub-sector, where the ministers asked Partner States to expedite the process of enacting legislation for execution of digital TV broadcasting.

Signal distribution

The ministers were also of the view that Partner States limit the number of signal distributors, provided that a public signal distributor is fully funded by the state, or open the signal distribution market to full competition, where the government is unable to fund a public signal distributor.

At its 8th Meeting, the Council approved an EAC roadmap for Analog-to-Digital Broadcast Transition and asked that national programmes on the analog-to-digital broadcast transition be aligned to the Roadmap.