The Digital Broadcasting Africa Forum 2016 was organized by the CTO and held 11-13 May in Lagos, Nigeria.
 
The central theme of the three day conference was the switch off of analogue terrestrial television and the full roll-out of digital terrestrial television (DTT) in Africa, where many countries missed the initial deadline of June 2015 set by the ITU. The event was officially opened by the Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
 
The forum was an occasion to share knowledge and expertise on the topic and the EBU contributed by giving insights on the public service broadcasters’ perspective as well as the benefits that African countries can get by investing in this distribution platform.
 
Delegates from Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Kenya highlighted how they have advanced and made progress in their countries showing optimism in meeting the new deadline for digital switchover, June 2017. The preferred technology seems to be DVB-T2/MPEG4 with a well-defined set of requirements that facilitate the production and distribution of certified set top boxes. At the same time, delegates showed optimism concerning the growing DTT coverage both in terms of population and geographical area.
 
The number of FTA channels is increasing: driven by the production of appealing content. Regarding the production of African content, a passionate discussion took place with delegates stressing its importance for cultural heritage, diversity and the establishment of a local environment that attracts employment and future investments.
 
During his presentation, Marcello Lombardo, EBU, noted that he was “delighted to see such a level of cooperation among these countries. The awareness level on the value that DTT can bring is clear and the eight years of spectrum stability provided by the outcome of WRC-15 make DTT a low hanging fruit for the taking.”  
 
 

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