Ministry starts selection process for digital migration
The Ministry of Communications has begun the process for the selection of a new vendor to facilitate Ghana’s migration from analogue television broadcasting to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT).
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The Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane-Boamah, who made this known also said, 17 companies, including local and international ones, had so far shown interest and filed their application.
“We have 17 vendors who have sent in interesting expression of interest and now that the court has ruled, we are going to sit and start a review of the various expression of interests that we received” he said at a meeting with members of the National Media Commission (NMC) in Accra last Wednesday, when he visited the offices of the commission.
The purpose of the visit was to discuss emerging issues with the commission and find out possible ways of solving them.
The one-hour meeting, which was held behind closed doors, centred on the digital migration process, media tolerance, media fund and the passage of the broadcasting bill.
Ghana’s digital migration suffered a setback when a Chinese firm, Star Communication Network Technology Company Limited, sued the Ministry of Communications, over the abrogation of an April 11, 2012 contract for the supply and installation of a reliable energy-efficient and cost-effective DTT Network Solution.
However, a commercial court in Accra has since thrown out the injunction.
Deadline
Dr Omane-Boamah said the ministry would shortlist the vendors quickly and get an evaluating team together to roll out a plan for commencement of the migration.
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He said the ministry was optimistic that Ghana would by the close of this year fully migrate to the DTT platform.
Touching on the media landscape, Dr Omane-Boamah expressed concerns about the content delivery in the media terrain, indicating that it could dent the country’s image if strong structures were not put in place to address it.
He stressed the need for the NMC and the National Communications Authority (NCA), to work together in ensuring sanity on the media landscape.
NMC committed
The Chairman of the NMC, Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, said the passage of the broadcasting bill would contribute tremendously to addressing irregularities in the media terrain.
He said the NMC was putting in place strong structures to promote sanity in the media, especially as the country prepared towards the 2016 general election.
Mr Blay-Amihere appealed to the government to give the commission the needed assistance for it to acquire a new office and a better environment to discharge its duties.