Crystal TV to broadcast across Africa
Crystal TV, Ghana’s first private television network, will soon broadcast across the continent of Africa after concluding a $ 270 million investment partnership with a team of global industry players, including Eutelsat Communications, one of the world’s leading satellite operators.
Advertisement
The television station’s 10 -year contract with Eutelsat Communications will also ensure that Crystal TV benefit from countrywide coverage for its digital platform of pay-tv and free-to-air channels.
Currently, the television station’s subscription-free premium television content, including its branded channels - Crystal TV Prime, Crystal TV Plus and Crystal TV Xtra — has been limited to Ghana’s main urban areas of Accra, the Ashanti Region and parts of the Eastern and Central regions.
Already, Crystal TV has selected the high-power sub-Saharan African footprint of the Eutelsat 16A satellite to extend access to homes beyond the range of terrestrial reception.
“Channels uplinked by Crystal TV to Eutelsat 16A are available to Design Tech Homes (DTH) equipped with a digital decoder and an access card for pay-tv content,” Dr Chief Paul A. Crystal-Djirackor, President and Chief Executive of Crystal TV, said in an interview.
Technology advancement
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, he said the partnership with Eutelsat was a major breakthrough in a new phase of digital broadcasting that would embrace technology and extend beyond the varied limitations of signal distribution.
“This is the moment Ghana and Africa has been waiting for to challenge ourselves as we embrace the future. It is an opportunity to offer unparalleled access to other broadcasters whose mission is to become global players with the support of Crystal’s technical facilities,” he said.
According to Chief Crystal-Djirackor, the partnership with Eutelsat and other project partners had set the stage for Ghana and Africa to accelerate with ease the transition from analogue to digital television.
Other Trending Stories
He said apart from viewers experiencing clear pictures and quality sound, global broadcasting would offer the international world the opportunity to see the exceptional Ghanaian culture.
Chief Crystal-Djirackor said the platform would also allow other television stations in Ghana which had the interest to extend their coverage across Africa, to link their services into the Crystal Technical facility.
“Since the global world is migrating from analogue to digital, there is the need for developing countries to prepare adequately to take advantage of the service,” he added.
Chief Crystal Djirackor observed that the time had come for Ghanaians to take advantage of the global satellite to extend the rich African culture to the international world.
“This is one of the many reasons Crystal TV thought about before going external to look for the capital to undertake this massive project,” he added.
Eutelsat determined
Eutelsat’s Regional Vice-President for Africa, Mr Rodney Benn, said his company’s “relationship with Crystal TV is further evidence of Eutelsat's ambition to leverage its experience and assets to support the digitisation of Africa's TV landscape”
“Satellite technology is once again showing how it completes and complements terrestrial infrastructure, and is playing a key role in a fundamental shift to digital that brings viewers the benefits of choice and quality” he explained