The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation is throwing in its wealth of expertise and experience to help those African countries already one year behind the International Telecommunication Union’s deadline of June 17, 2015 in the switch off from analogue to digital broadcasting.
And that was the crux of discussion at the Digital Broadcasting Africa Forum 2016 held in Lagos, Nigeria, where many African countries shared experiences and the challenges in the migration progress with a view to finding solutions.
Except in Nigeria where paucity of fund had been the major obstacle to achieving the migration right on time, several other African countries are confronted with legal battles and lack of cooperation between the regulators and the industry operators. Experiences shared by representatives from Ghana, Malawi and even Kenya that has achieved complete switch over, though not 100 per cent coverage yet, revealed incidences of conflicts between the regulators and the operators as cog in the wheel of the digital migration progress.
Against this backdrop, the Secretary-General of the CTO, which organised the Forum, Mr Shola Taylor, emphasised the need for a clear and all-encompassing regulatory framework by the African broadcast regulators. Citing incidences where some operators were taking their regulators to court over the migration process, Taylor said this happened because there was no clear regulatory framework guiding the process in some of those countries. According to him, with clear regulatory environment, there would be no conflict and the process would be able to go on smoothly.
“We have noted that legal challenges are impediments in digital circulation. In South African and some other African countries, we have experienced that. In Nigeria, we have had at least one case and in Ghana we have had that too. One of the key things to minimise legal challenges is to have a regulatory body which is very clear. And I think in the case of Nigeria, there is a clear need for regulatory bodies in broadcasting to be clearer in taking decisions because it will help the industry to minimise crises,” he said.
The CTO Secretary-General challenged all African countries to ensure complete switch over in shortest possible time.
“The region (Africa) should put greater effort at meeting obligations from treaty agreements that they sign up to and in this case, they must accelerate the completion of the digital switchover process. Among other things, they must address the key challenges of funding, adequate regulatory frameworks consistent with new digital multimedia services, as well as the need for effective coordination with their neighbours,” said Mr Taylor about the digital migration process in Africa.
He also called on African countries to better value spectrum as a public good. “One obvious lesson from this process is that with continued advances in radio transmission technologies, we increasingly realise how valuable spectrum is as a finite resource, and regrettably also, how undervalued it has been in some parts of the region. So, whenever possible, while it is countries’ sovereign right to use spectrum as they see fit, it is our view that it must be made available on sound economic grounds first, including for the broadcasting sector itself,” Mr Taylor added.
Speaking about the purpose of the event, Mr Taylor said that it was aimed at reviewing the current state of digital migration in Africa and reflect on emerging trends in digital broadcasting and their likely impact on the continent’s broadcasting sector and on its economic development.
To provide practical support to the region on spectrum valuation, Taylor also announced a series of activities in support of member countries in the region, including a workshop to take place in August in South Africa on spectrum auctions as one means to derive value from spectrum, as well as a forum on spectrum management to take place in November in Cameroon. He also cited the readiness of the CTO to carry out spectrum audit for its members who indicate interest.
The Lagos event, which was attended by around 150 policymakers, regulators and broadcasting executives, focuses on the theme “The Pan-Africa Transition: Achieving Digital Migration Success”.
Discussions focused on: Broadcast technology trends; Next-generation entertainment; Creation of local content; and Digital migration and spectrum allocation.
Co-hosted this year by Nigeria Ministry of Information and Culture of Nigeria, Ministry of Communications, the National Broadcasting Commission and Nigerian Communications Commission, the event builds on the successful Digital Broadcasting Switchover events series the CTO has held over the past 10 years in the region.