Broadcast, Film and Convergence in Africa - Issue no 401 on 14 December 2022

Digital TV Special: Seventeen years after the initial deadline Sub-Saharan Africa has still not completed the Digital Switch Over in Broadcasting

14 December 2022

The International Telecommunication Union set a 17 June 2015 deadline for most Sub-Saharan African countries to make the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. Russell Southwood, who has tracked the progress of the switch over for over a decade and a half, looks at where things are now and why so little progress has been made. In previous reviews of where African countries have got to with the digital switch over, Balancing Act has used slightly different categories. In the early days, there seemed to be a logical route that involved writing a policy, gathering the stakeholders together and setting…