Kent Mensah, AfricaNews editor in Accra, Ghana office
Five Ugandan television stations are switching from analogue to digital broadcasting with 200 viewers receiving the signal in the capital Kampala. They are Kenyan-owned Nation Television (NTV), WBS, East Africa Television and Nile Broadcasting Service.
It is a pilot transmission powered by Next Generation Broadcasting, a Swedish DTT company in partnership with national broadcaster Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) TV, Itnewsafrica.com reports.
The Executive Director of Uganda Communications Commission Patrick Masambu said Uganda would finally switch from analogue signals by December 2012.
Few African countries are gradually shifting to digital TV with Ghana and some few others doing trials. The Swedish company is running similar trial in Ghana’s capital Accra (through GTV) with NET2, TV3, TV Africa, and Viasat 1.
Around the world 10 countries in 2009 completed the process of turning off analog terrestrial broadcasting. The first country to make a wholesale switch to digital over-the-air (terrestrial) broadcasting was Luxembourg, in 2006, followed by the Netherlands later in 2006, Finland, Andorra, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland in 2007, Belgium and Germany in 2008, and the United States in 2009.
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