Plans by government to switch from analogue to digital Television transmission will now take off by the secoond quarter of next year.
This means that by the first half of next year, individuals who still use analogue TV sets without digital boxes would not be able to watch their favorite channels.
The migration, Starr Business understands, will be rolled out in phases starting from the first quarter of next year.
Government could not meet the September deadline for the process for the second time citing financial challenges as the major reason.
Speaking at the MTN Fiber Broadband launch Monday December 18, a deputy Communication Minister George Andah assured that in line with the Ministry’s mandate to drive the government’s digital agenda, “the National Terrestrial Television Migration process is taking off in the first and second quarter respectively.”
Meanwhile, even though the policy framework guiding the content on television requests that 70% of its broadcast should be local content, the policy has been hugely violated by the industry.
Background
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) urged governments in the world to migrate from analogue broadcasting to digital by June 2015.
A number of countries have been able to migrate including some in Africa but Ghana; one of the most technologically advanced countries in Africa missed the deadline several times.
Ghana’s Ministry of Communications in October 2015, signed a contract with K-Net Limited for the rolling out of the DTT project which demanded the completion of the DTT network within 12 months.
Source: Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
