Digital migration and the future of TV in Ghana
BarRing any hitches, many African countries, would have completed the migration process from analogue to digital TV broadcasting by the end of this year, 2015. Ghana is projecting a new completion date of February 2016.
Advertisement
Actually, some countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana are at very advanced stages of the process and would most likely be meeting the deadline.
Digital broadcasting is simply put, an improvement in technology, broadcast technology; much like when we migrated from cassettes to CDs. Sound quality from CDs are great but then CDs also easily get scratched, spoiling the fun of smooth listening.
In the same way, Digital broadcasting is certainly not going to be perfect. It may have its drawbacks, but overall, it is believed to be a much more improved system of broadcasting.
Therefore, the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) set the deadline of June 2015 for all broadcasters to complete the process of migration. This deadline was set way back in 2006 so those who are not going to meet it don’t really have any excuse. Ghana had started the process wayback in 2010 and currently quite a number of TV stations are on digital platforms and at the same time still broadcasting analogue as before. Some stations are exclusively digital such as Multi TV and First Digital.
More channels
One loudly touted advantage of digital broadcasting, is the fact that frequencies can accommodate many more channels. This means that we should expect many more TV channels. Already, Ghanaians are spoilt for choice as regards the number of TV channels trying to get their attention, yet, the spectre of many more channels may be exciting for couch potatoes and channel hoppers but many others would not shout for joy.
This is because a lot of trashy channels may crop up as a result of this increased availability of broadcasting space. This may have negative consequences for the nation’s culture, especially as regards the younger population who are easily influenced by the media. This is where the National Media Commission and the National Communications Authority have to be very vigilant to ensure that broadcasters tow the line of responsible public service that is alive to national aspirations.
Beyond being policed by regulators, there are other factors which could cause broadcasters to give off their best. Foremost is advertising revenue. Channels which are not subscription based, would be depending only on advertising revenue to survive. Advertising money would only come when you have great programming on offer. Great content attracts audiences and that’s what advertisers want.
In the increased competitive space that is coming, trashy stations would naturally go out of business. Even when a channel is subscription based, audiences would have to be wooed with compelling content for them to purchase your decoder;or even when they have already done so, to continue to pay subscription fees every month. So this is a coming age when content would reign, content finally becomes king!
It is an age when film and TV production subsector should thrive. In times past, film and TV content producers have literally had to beg or pay bribes to TV executives just to be allocated airtime to put their programmes on air, that is even when they have money to pay for the airtime.
Whereas in other countries, TV stations pay content producers for their productions or commission them, i.e, give them money in advance to produce the content; in Ghana the model is turned upside down and content producers have to ‘buy airtime’ before their productions get to be seen by audiences. Thankfully, the tide is changing and migration to digital broadcasting would hasten it.
Another great thing about digital migration, is that, it is going to increase access to TV audiences across the nation. In the current situation, TV stations are limited geographically, to only how far their resources can push them in terms of coverage of the nation. However, with digital broadcasting, a national carrier of a sort would carry the signal of all channels around the country. This means all ‘free to air’channels available to a viewer in Accra would also be available to a viewer in Tumu, Bawku ,Axim,Keta etc.
This implies that no station would have the advantage of ‘reach’ over the other. All stations start the competition on equal footing. Therefore as earlier alluded to, content on offer would determine which stations are watched.
The increased broadcasting space that would be created after digital migration is also expected to spawn speciality or themed channels. News and current affairs only channels, entertainment channels, music television channels, movie channels, wildlife..etc.this should satisfy tastes of all manner of viewers.
For advertisers, it means more segmented audiences and it should be easier pinpointing niche audiences and reaching them. On the other hand, it may mean an increase in their advertising spend as they have to spread across an increased number of channels to be sure they are reaching all their targets.
Perhaps on the whole, cost of TV advertising may come down since there would be more TV airtime chasing advertising cedis. One in fact wonders how all these TV channels are going to survive on the limited advertising pie in the country. Many stations would have to become Pay TV channels if they are to survive.
The importance of policy and regulation in this digital future is imperative if the full benefits are to accrue to the nation. For example, there is the risk of most of the stations becoming conduit pipes for foreign networks and foreign content as it may be cheaper(in the immediate term) for stations to depend on foreign content.
Local programmes
However, a policy such as what Kenya is currently implementing, where a number of hours within primetime are reserved for strictly Kenyan programming, can be adopted here in Ghana too.
Such a policy would create more jobs in the creative sector as TV stations would need content from independent producers to fill such a ‘strictly Ghanaian’ time band.
To conclude, digital television broadcasting does indeed hold a lot of promise for the development of the broadcasting sector. However, the nation may not benefit if it is approached with the same laissez-faire attitude that has been the bane of many projects of national interest.
Advertisement
Broadcasting is a means of propagating our culture and our relevance as a people. It is a socialisation tool of critical importance that we cannot mess with. Digital migration affords us the opportunity to take a look again at the sector and re-tune it to serve our best national aspirations.