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In 2006, member states of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) signed an agreement in Geneva to switch broadcasting from analogue to digital. The deadline for the transition was set for June 17, 2015, nine years after the agreement. Ghana was one of the signatories to the agreement.
This ITU agreement was a vital step in the television broadcasting industry and also in the management of the digital assets of nations.
The benefits of migrating from analogue broadcasting to digital television are enormous. In addition to better image and sound quality for consumers, digital technology enables the deployment of more channels, diversified content and better interactivity.
Most importantly, digital broadcasting uses relatively limited bandwidth or spectrum.. Efficient use of frequencies frees up a lot of valuable spectrum (digital dividend) which countries can resell for millions of dollars or use for other digital purposes for national development.
In Kenya, for example, after the country’s changeover in 2015, the number of broadcasters increased from 14 to 65 in a short period of two years. Despite the increase in the number of broadcasters, the spectrum used for broadcasting has halved, from 448 on analog to 224 after the digital switchover. This was in addition to the other benefits of better audio and video output as well as better interactivity made possible by digital broadcasting.
The East African trio of Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda met the ITU transition deadline of 2015. A 2018 report from the Africa Telecommunications Union indicates that several other countries, including Liberia, Uganda, Malawi and Mauritius, managed to complete their changeover by 2018.
In Ghana, six years after the ITU deadline, the country’s digital migration story remains a major ministerial discourse. So far, the record has been full of broken promises for the switchover.
The ministerial rhetoric of deadline promises began in 2011 when the Hon. Haruna Iddrisu (current minority leader in parliament) was the Minister of Communications. On Wednesday 23 November 2011, he announced, quite ambitiously, that a roadmap had been completed and that Ghana’s digital TV switchover would take place by 2014.
In fact, the Hon. Iddrisu went on to promise at an international forum on digital migration, that Ghana could actually go digital as early as 2013. With this reassurance, many hoped that Ghana might be the first African country to make a full transition to broadcasting. digital. But that ended up being what it was – just big talk.
Then came Dr Edward Omane Boamah as Minister of Communication from 2013 to 2016. He started with an apology. On April 8, 2015, Dr Boamah said Ghana could not meet the digital migration deadline announced by its predecessor, largely due to a delay in securing a loan facility from the Chinese Exim Bank. He explained that the loan was needed by the government to facilitate the installation of the infrastructure necessary for the digital switchover.
Subsequently, it was his turn to promise a changeover deadline. Unlike his predecessor, as a doctor he was used to precision. So he gave a specific date. The switch would take place on September 21, 2017, he promised.
Based on Dr Omane Boamah’s pledge, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) announced that: “On September 21, 2017, all analog transmitters and frequencies will be turned off in the country. The Daily chart posted a story with the headline: “Analog TV Transmission Stopped Now September 21, 2017”. Other media enthusiastically shared the same information.
But before the September 21, 2017 deadline, there was a new government and a new minister. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) won the 2016 election. Hon. Ms. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has been appointed Minister of Communications.
During his review by the Parliamentary Appointments Committee on February 1, 2017, the Hon. Owusu-Ekuful has made it clear that the deadline for the digital switchover is likely to be extended. And indeed, on September 21, 2017, the switchover did not take place.
Three years later, it was time for the Hon. Owusu-Ekuful to also announce its deadline. Thus, on Friday January 17, 2020, Ms. Owusu-Ekuful announced during a stakeholder forum that the changeover would take place in June 2020. She avoided giving a specific date in June. It must have been in June. But just like previous soft ministerial pledges, June 2020 came to fruition and the combination of analogue and digital broadcasting continued.
In July 2020 (once the missed deadline has passed), the Minister of Communication was back with an announcement. This time it was not a changeover deadline. This was the reason why his promised deadline could not be met. Not surprisingly, the culprit was COVID-19.
After the June 2020 deadline fiasco, the last time the nation learned anything close to another deadline for the changeover was April 17, 2021. This time, the minister announced to stakeholders when handing over an office complex to an entity called the Central Digital Transmission Company that “Ghana’s efforts to completely migrate from analog to digital transmission are on track. There was no longer a delay. It’s just in progress!
The question remains: So when will Ghana fully migrate?
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