EUROPE
It is not surprising that European
countries pioneered the migration
from analogue to digital TV. DVB-
T, one of the four digital TV
systems was developed in Europe,
and European countries are keen to
set good examples. The launch of
digital TV was led by the United
Kingdom in 1998, followed by
Sweden in 1999 and the majority of
Western European countries in the
first half of 2000. As of August 2014,
the majority of European countries
have completed the switching off of
analogue TV except Bosnia and
Greece, scheduled for later in 2014
and Albania, Montenegro, Serbia,
Turkey, Ukraine and Russia,
scheduled for middle of 2015.
Switching from analogue to
digital can be fast and painless – as
was the case in the Netherlands
where more than 90% of the
population could already receive
their TV services via cable – or can
be long and arduous as was the
case in the UK where a network of
1154 transmitting sites needed to be
converted in phases over many
years at an estimated cost of £500m.
Most European countries also took
the opportunity to improve their
TV coverage when going digital .
For public service broadcasters, TV
population coverages improve
typically from 80-85% during
analogue time to 90-99% after going
digital.
AFRICA&MIDDLE EAST
Together with European countries,
countries in Africa and the Middle
East including Iran agreed on 17
June 2015 as the end of the transition
period from analogue to digital TV.
Many countries have started test
transmissions, but only a number of
countries have started DTT services
and only a few have completed
switching off their analogue
services. In 2011, the 48 sub-
Saharan countries took an important
and significant decision to agree on
harmonised frequency bands for
digital TV (below 694 MHz) and
mobile wireless broadband services
(above 698 MHz). Subsequently in
2013, the sub-Saharan countries
with the assistance from the African
Telecommunication Union and the
ITU have successfully negotiated a
revised frequency plan for digital
TV that provides a minimum of
four national coverages in all
countries.
As of August 2014, the four sub-
Saharan countries that have
completed the analogue switch-off
(ASO) are Mauritius, Tanzania,
Malawi and Rwanda. Rwanda’s
successful migration demonstrates
what can be achieved when there is
strong commitment from the
President and its government. In
2008 the Government decided to
digitalise the whole RBA
Transmission Network and
between 2009 and 2011 the digital
transmission network of public
broadcasters (DVB-T, MPEG-2) was
constructed following public tender
with 95% coverage of the country.
The countries that have started DTT
but have not commenced ASO are
Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, and
Cameroon, Ethiopia. Seychelles,
South Africa and Ghana have
targeted to complete their ASO
before the end of 2014. At the ATU
3rd Digital Migration and Policy
Summit held in May 2014 in
Nairobi, Kenya, participating
African countries acknowledged
the challenges encountered while
executing the steps in the migration
process, but were resolute in their
commitment to meet the deadline
of June 2015. Countries present
generally agreed that the two main
challenges were financial and
technical implementation.
In Arab States countries, TV is
mostly received via satellite. For
example in Cairo, Egypt, a city of
over 20m, it is difficult to find a
single roof-top TV aerial. In June
2014 Arab States countries
organised a sub-regional frequency
coordination meeting with
assistance of the ITU, with the
objective to revise the TV frequency
plan in order to facilitate
introduction of DTT services as
well as harmonise the frequency
bands to be made available for
future mobile wireless broadband
services. The sub-regional group
plans to complete its work by the
end of 2014.
NORTHAMERICA
In North America, the United States
and Canada have completed the
digital switchover process while
Mexico aims to complete the
process in 2015. All three countries
adopted the ATSC standards
developed by the Advanced
Television Systems Committee. The
USA led the way in launching DTT
services with 28 stations in the ten
largest cities in November 1998. Six
months later saw other stations in
the 30 next largest cities following
suite. All commercial broadcasters
were simulcasting on digital before
May 2002 and non-commercial
broadcasters a year after. High
power stations were required to be
switched off before June 2009,
stations operating TV channels
between 52 and 69 before
December 2011 and thousands of
low power stations before
September 2015.
In Canada the first commercial
DTT station went on air in Toronto
in early 2003. Currently, there are
about two dozen DTT stations
across the country broadcasting in
THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 2 2014
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23
DIGITAL MIGRATION
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THE CHANNEL
Rwanda’s
successful
migration
shows
what can be
achieved
with strong
commitment
from
government
“
”
