By Emeka Aginam

While cutting edge technologies, , set top  given reasons why African governments must deploy combination of satellite and terrestrial infrastructure to save significant cost ahead of 2017 new deadline.

Limmer who spoke to Vanguard in a telephone recently in the  sideline of the just concluded DISCOP Africa conference held in South Africa  assured that Eutelsat is working with countries globally and locally on the migration to digital.

At the conference where   leading broadcasters and satellite providers gathered to discuss about the future of broadcasting in Africa, he said that combining satellite and terrestrial infrastructure will significantly decrease cost

What countries should do

Speaking on the advantages and disadvantages of digital migration for African countries, he said that,

“The challenges of digital migration are broader than just funding. Certainly financing the digital migration is one of the key elements but also reaching anyone within the country as well as rolling out the offer in a defined time frame are critical points.

“Here the combination of infrastructures is an important element. Combining satellite and terrestrial infrastructure will significantly decrease cost, will support to reach anybody in the country and you can start tomorrow.

“Many African countries are already looking into this combination and have started using satellite capacity to complement terrestrial networks”.

On a global scale, he said that Eutelsat was working in more than a dozen countries together with governments to support digital migration that started  almost ten years ago in Europe.

“In Africa we are currently supporting migration projects in the North, West and Southern part with a total of five  countries and by end of Q1 2016 we hopefully can add four more.

Offering for Nigeria market

“We have two different type of broadcasting services in Nigeria. TV platforms DStv, Consat, My TV and Montage TV offer encrypted content to almost one million TV homes across the country.

“ In addition we are carrying many free TV channels like Silverbird, Channels TV or Arewa 24 to serve any household in Nigeria.

“We believe that the Nigerian market has an even bigger growth potential in the future and are committed to support this with additional satellite capacity”, he added.

Future of broadcasting in Africa

In the future , he predicted that Africa will mainly be served by two infrastructures including digital, terrestrial and satellite.

Whilst digital terrestrial will be limited in number of channels and services available, he said that satellite will have the advantage of almost unlimited capacity.

“This means you will have more channels, different technologies (HD, UHD, ip delivery) and new services (triple play, push VOD) to the advantage of the consumer.

“In order to remain competitive, broadcasters need to differentiate not only with content but also the way they distribute to the consumer and allow different payment options.

“Distribution, consumer understanding, local content and availability to make payment processes as easy as possible will be key for success” he explained.

One thing is clear. The migration to digital TV is a huge programme to implement globally as majority of African countries struggle to meet up with the 2017 deadline having missed the June, 2015 earlier deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union, ITU as a result of infrastructural challenges.The digital transition in broadcasting is a global process involving the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting signals.