Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

How digital TV could drive
information access
By Guy Berger
Guy Berger is Director-designate for
Freedom of Expression and Media
Development (FEM) at UNESCO.
He served as head of <strong>the</strong> School of
Journalism and Media Studies at
Rhodes University from 1994 -2010.
He is co-editor with Elizabeth Barratt
of “50 <strong>years</strong> of African Journalism”
which is available at www.
highwayafrica.com. His research is
online at http://guyberger.ru.ac.za
Africa is famous for <strong>the</strong> migrations
of wildlife across <strong>the</strong> Serengeti; now
<strong>the</strong> continent faces a migration off
<strong>the</strong> ground.
In <strong>the</strong> next five <strong>years</strong>, African TV
broadcasting will have to leave
analogue signals behind in favour
of digital distribution, and in so
doing also shift from one part of <strong>the</strong>
airwaves to ano<strong>the</strong>r.
This “digital migration” trajectory
is not to be confused with satellite
TV, which already comes down from
<strong>the</strong> skies in largely digital form. It
is about land-based signals, and is
known as “Digital Terrestrial TV”
(DTT). Radio will remain analogue
FM and MW for a long time yet.
Here’s what <strong>the</strong> migration to DTT is
not:
• It is not an automatic change
to High Definition television.
Over <strong>the</strong> medium-term, digital
transmission of signals will still
mainly be in Standard Definition
in most African countries
• Even High Definition transmissions
will not necessarily
show on your TV set. The point
is that even if content is filmed
Section 4: Access to Information
in HD, and transmitted in HD, it
is only HD-enabled TV screens
that can display this quality of
video. Most African TV viewers
are still many <strong>years</strong> away from
getting such costly new TV sets.
• Despite much government
rhetoric, DTT is not a magic
method to overcome <strong>the</strong> digital
divide and provide internet
services, around this. Digital
broadcasting could play a part
in regard to a promised land of
broadband for all, but in most
cases it probably won’t. More
on this below.
So here’s what <strong>the</strong> transition
actually is:
• It’s a more efficient way to
transmit broadcast signals.
Consider that a single radiospectrum
frequency used to
be taken up completely by a
sole analogue TV service. One
signal, one channel. But digital,
especially with DVB-T2 data
compression, will be able carry
up to 24 video channels (in
Standard Definition) on just one
“multiplexed” signal.
• The full migration is very expensive
because it requires
digitisation all along <strong>the</strong> valuechain:
at <strong>the</strong> point of broadcast
production (filming, editing,
archives); <strong>the</strong> point of distribution
(signal towers); and at <strong>the</strong>
point of consumption (viewers
will need to buy a “set top box”
to convert <strong>the</strong> digital signal to
show on <strong>the</strong>ir existing analogue
TV sets).
• The spread of <strong>the</strong> process will
take <strong>years</strong> to reach <strong>the</strong> point
where analogue TV signals
can be switched off on <strong>the</strong>
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