RWANDA EXPERIENCE ON MIGRATION FROM ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL TV BROADCASTING NAURA SPRINGS HOTEL, ARUSHA, TANZANIA - Presenter: J.B. Mutabazi ...
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RWANDA EXPERIENCE ON MIGRATION FROM
ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL TV BROADCASTING
A Presentation to the 9th Digital Broadcasting
Switchover Forum Africa
NAURA SPRINGS HOTEL, ARUSHA, TANZANIA
11th – 13th February, 2014
Presenter: J.B. Mutabazi
RURA
Agenda 1. Background 2. Rwanda’s Approach 3. Achievements 4. Challenges 5. Way forward
Background
There are currently 3 TV broadcasters in Rwanda:
Public Broadcaster - Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA)
Star Africa Media (Pay TV Licensed in 2007, Digital
Terrestrial TV, DVB-T, MPEG-4)
TELE 10 Group (Pay TV, Satellite TV)
TV penetration: 7%
2006: Pilot digital transmitter (DVB-T) was installed in Kigali and
some decoders (MPEG-2) were distributed to high officials
2008: Government decided to digitalize the whole RBA
Transmission Network
2009 -2011: Construction of the digital transmission network of
public broadcasters (DVB-T, MPEG-2). The estimate coverage is 95%
of the country
Rwanda’s Approach to migration Establishment of a national Digital migration Task Force to ensure smooth migration from analogue to digital broadcasting
Achievements Adoption of Broadcasting policy (2010) Adoption of Regulations Governing Licensing for digital terrestrial Television (2011) – Two signal distributors licenses shall be issued Establishment of technical specifications for Set Top Boxes (STBs) to allow importers and vendors to avail them on Rwandan market (published in December 2012) Approval of Signal Distributor License for public broadcasters (February 2013). The second license to be issued to PANAFRICA NETWORK RWANDA Ltd (a Consortium made by Star Africa Media and local broadcasters) Elaboration of Communication Strategy (TUNGA TV Go…..Digital) First Adoption of digital switchover plan: progressive analogue transmitter switch off starting from July 2013 until December 2013. We failed due to lack of STBs on the market. Dual illumination launched in March 2013
Achievements – Cont. Second switchover plan adopted and under implementation Phase 1: Analogue transmitters covering Kigali and its sub-areas switched off by end of January 2014 – Done on 31st January at midnight preceded by a strong awareness campaign on all media channels (radio, TV, press conference,…) Phase 2: Analogue transmitters in North West of the country by end of March 2014 Phase 3: Analogue Transmitters in North and North East by end May 2014 Phase 4: Analogue Transmitters in South and South West by end of July 2014
Challenges Availability of STBs on the market STBs quality tests (they are many fake STBs and we don’t have tools for testing ) Cost of STBs (Exemption of Tax on STBs is under discussion to reduce cost) Customer support (installation and configuration) Content development on Public broadcaster side (why migrate if no interesting content to see? Currently Public broadcaster is broadcasting 7 FTA (RTV, TV10, France 24 French and English, TV5 monde, Aljazeera and BBC) on his digital platform. Upgrade of digital network to DVB-T2 SLA between Signal distributor and broadcasters Interoperability of STBs. A lot of questions from customers asking why to by many STBs from on Network to another.
Way Forward Availing STBs, Four STB vendors have already been licensed but the quantity is still low to supply the whole market – One of the reasons to move into phases. Increase awareness campaign to sensitize people to buy STBs or iDTV Training of technicians for STBs installation and support to customers Development of a SLA format to be used between Signal Distributor and broadcasters (Content Service providers); currently no charge is being applied to broadcasters by RBA but in the future it may be applied
Thank you
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