June 17 digital migration date: Ghana to miss out
Ghana is likely to miss the global deadline to migrate from analogue television broadcasting to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), the National Communications Authority (NCA) has said.
Advertisement
The global deadline is June 17, 2015, and Ghana is expected to comply because it is a signatory to the Geneva 2006 agreement.
Geneva 2006 was a conference organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to agree on and plan television frequencies for DTT broadcasting in Europe, Africa and parts of the Middle East.
Ghana did not also meet the regional agreement to migrate by December 2014.
The West African sub-region member states to Geneva 2006 agreed on the regional deadline at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria in July 2013.
Stakeholders’ meeting dubbed Arena 2015
Addressing the opening session of an international stakeholders’ meeting in Accra yesterday, the Director for Engineering of the NCA, Mr Henry Kanor, said Ghana’s inability to meet both deadlines was not peculiar, as the entire West African sub-region was struggling to migrate.
The two-day, high-profile meeting, dubbed Arena 2015, is focused on the transformation of the African media and telecommunications industry.
Arena 2015 is being organised by Bikinis Africa Limited and NGA Novum, both international telecommunications companies.
Other Trending Stories
Mr Kanor said despite various national efforts to migrate successfully, a number of challenges, including financial constraints, continued to delay the migration process as well as meeting the global deadline.
He also cited technical and infrastructure constraints, public education and awareness, unpreparedness of independent broadcasters to migrate now as major challenges delaying the process of migration.
Mr Kanor, however, said the government and all its stakeholders were instituting all requisite measures to accelerate the national migration process.
NCA commends organisers
In his remarks, the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Krabral Blay- Amhihere, commended the organisers of the meeting for providing another platform for stakeholders to deliberate on accelerating Ghana’s migration process.
According to him, the meeting would also foster further understanding among stakeholders to augment the efforts by national stakeholders, including the NCA and the NMC, to ensure stakeholders came to a concensus to ensure public understanding of the migration process.
Addressing the opening session of the meeting, a Co-chair of Arena 2015, Mr Joe Frans, said it was unclear which stage Ghana was currently at in the migration process.
According to him, how and when the migration would eventually take place were also unknown, adding, “All that matters is that it will surely happen, and if it does, actors in the media and the telecommunications industry will either fold up or survive.”
He, therefore, called on all industry players to prepare themselves to embrace the new global transformation to avoid being kicked out of business.
writer’s email; doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh