At an international seminar on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) held last week, the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister of Communication, Mr. Azzedine Mihoubi, announced that Algeria will start migrating to digital in the next five years by deploying terrestrial television throughout the country.
Impact
This migration will have an impact on economic, cultural and political aspects of the country's citizens. It should accelerate economic growth and socio-cultural integration. The secretary indicated that his department is dedicated to support and lead the transition ‘revolution’ from analogue to digital in order to minimize the impact of the 'digital divide' and to continue to attract viewership in the audiovisual media arena.
National Digital Strategy
Earlier this year a National Digital Strategy recommendation was adopted, which paves the way for the future launch of DTT in Algeria. Experts from the EBU and the Digital Terrestrial Television Action Group (DigiTAG, a group specializing in the implementation of digital terrestrial technology) contribute to the work. Several of them participated in last week's seminar to find solutions for technical problems. The seminar also provided visibility, informing the general public of the importance of the introduction and the deployment of DTT in the coming years.