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China aiding Africa’s digital migration

By Abu Bakarr Kargbo – CAPC Beijing (People's Daily Online)    13:31, August 14, 2017

Africa’s digital migration has the potential to grow both the quality and quantity of what is available on television and increase the number of people who will be able to watch it. The Continent is on a steady march forward in terms of digitization and should take full advantage of being late-comers to the field. 

The latest report of Digital Television Forecast in Sub-Sahara Africa released by Digital Television Study in England shows that digital television household penetration rate in Sub-Sahara Africa will soon exceed 50% and it is estimated that digital migration will reach almost every family by 2020. By the end of 2013, there had been 11 million subscribers of Pay-TV, among which 8.5 million users had opted for satellite television. By 2020, the number will reach 26.65 million. Pay-TV revenue in Sub-Sahara is $3.17 billion, estimated to increase by 69% to $5.35 billion by 2020.

The above facts and figures show greater potential for Africa’s digital migration growth and development. The continent is currently striving to meet the analogue switch-off deadline this year. China, as a reliable partner, is willing to deepen co-operation in media development, promoting the digital migration in the continent.

Since Africa is projected to be one of the world’s fastest-growing television markets over the next decade, this is a wily move on the part of the Chinese. Some estimates put the number of households with televisions in Africa at 100 million.

The cooperation between Chinese and African media is in accordance with the Chinese advocacy of One Belt and One Road. China is willing to deepen cooperation in the field of media development, promoting the digital migration in Africa.

The December 2015 6th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg, South Africa highlights amongst other things the importance of China supporting Africa’s digital migration development. The Summit agreed that:

• The two sides will enhance exchanges and cooperation between departments in charge of information, communications, radio and television, and will increase personnel training in the information field, share experiences of development in information and communication, and work together to safeguard information security.

• The two sides encourage Chinese enterprises to assist African countries' efforts to put in place digital radio and TV broadcasting systems, to promote digitalization of radio and TV services, and to benefit more people in the rural areas in Africa.

• The two sides encourage and support the participation of competitive Chinese enterprises of information, communication, radio and TV in building information infrastructure in Africa, such as cable networks and interconnection networks, and their involvement in mutually beneficial construction, operation and offering of services with African businesses in order to assist Africa to build information networks covering the whole continent.

• The two sides will actively explore and push forward cooperation in information and communication technology, help African countries to build "Smart Cities", and enhance the roles of information and communication technology in safeguarding social security, and fighting against terrorism and crime.

• The two sides will cooperate with international organizations such as International Telecommunication Union, narrow the digital divide in Africa, and promote the building of an information society in Africa.

One of President Xi Jinping’s promise to African Heads of States in FOCAC summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the provision of 10, 000 Satellite TV services in the continent. Fulfilling this promise, a prominent and influential Chinese company, StarTimes is currently working assiduously to actualize the Chinese president’s good dream for African Countries.

StarTimes is being listed among China's top 100 technologies and science innovation- oriented enterprise, Forbes top 20 China's most potential enterprise and the only authorized private enterprise by the Ministry of Commerce in China to undertake foreign projects in the radio and TV industry.

This came about after China realized that a completely digitized Africa is vital as digital broadcasting empowers citizens especially in the rural livelihoods with necessary information. StarTimes is currently helping African Countries to improve on digital migration, and has over the years turned out to be the pioneer and key player in the Pay-TV business in China and African countries where it is providing quality and affordable services to over ten million subscribers.

StarTimes has established wireless digital TV platform in many African countries and with hopes to invest in mobile TV service platform and Internet business platform in the near future.

The worldwide technology company, which was established in 1988 in China, has positioned itself as the most influential broadcasting enterprise in Africa and China. It is currently operating in 34 African Countries with 300 local channels in the continent.

The company has a great digital philosophy that African Countries are currently enjoying under the new digital technology platform in the world, and its main aim is to continuously provide every African family with affordable and enjoyable Digital TV services.

As the most influential systems integrator, technology provider and internet operator in China, StarTimes started developing its African markets in 2002, and was issued the first digital TV operator license by Rwanda in 2007.

Through setting up a multi-frequency, multichannel wireless terrestrial digital transmission platform, StarTimes is capable of providing the local people with not only digital TV service, mobile multimedia service and various kinds of digital TV terminal products, but also digital signal transmission service for national and commercial broadcasting and television institution, and thus to realize the vision of advanced terrestrial digital television technology that enables every African family to afford digital TV set, to watch digital TV, to enjoy TV as well as share the beauty brought by digital television.

Whether a new technology can be fully utilized, or new product can be successfully promoted, would lie on whether it is closely linked to an individual’s personal benefits.

By realizing digitalization in Africa, a whole new industry will be formatted, and this will create more job opportunities, generate more tax revenues, and enhance the social development and enrich local people’s lifestyle. In the future, local people will only have to pay at a very low rate of about US$2 per month, with much wider choices and higher quality of TV programs, so it is believed that the biggest beneficiary is local people.

The most important aspect of Africa’s digital migration is the willingness of China’s StarTimes to complete the 10, 000 Villages Satellite TV Project under the instruction of Chinese and African governments.

Although digital migration had disrupted the traditional way of communication, a new world has been created where the life span of new products has continued to plummet. China’s intervention will not only open up Africa but will also serve as a pointer to a brighter future in economic prosperity.

Like any other industry, the broadcasting sector is evolving over time with new developments in technology. New digital technologies have presented an opportunity to expand broadcast capabilities because now, more TV programs can be accommodated on less bandwidth. This has opened the way for a large number of potential TV broadcasters who had hitherto been denied chances to operate due to limited capacities, to be able to invest in this field. The result of this is that the field has been opened for more players and competition will hence increase in this sector.

For Africa to achieve a successful digital transmission it must adopt a unified system of technology and adopt other business models such as public-private partnership. Digitisation is a complex technologically-intensive process that also requires huge capital investment. It should be seen as a social project because it will affect how people receive and share information.

There is a need to develop legislation and policies against the introduction of outdated technology on their markets. Regulations around the use and importation of analogue or second-hand digital broadcast equipment should be discouraged as such items are electronic waste.

It’s time for Africans to stand up tall to embrace the promotion of digitization and information. The advances in technology meant that more African citizens would be able to access information using internet-based technology.

We should take advantage of it because digital migration brings a host of opportunities for the ICT industry, government, and ultimately the end user. In the end, the economy stands to gain and when that happens, the African continent grows and everyone stands to benefit. 

Abu Bakarr Kargbo is a Senior Staff Writer of Standard Times Newspaper in Sierra Leone and an intern at People’s Daily Online.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)
(Web editor: Wu Chengliang, Bianji)

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