Zimbabwe may miss digital broadcasting deadline
- Published on 21 August 2012
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Zimbabwe is battling to meet the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2015 deadline for countries to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting, as the parastatal responsible for making the big switch is poorly funded.
According to knowledgeable sources, Zimbabawe’s state-owned signal carrier and broadcasting infrastructure services company TransMedia requires almost $30 million to set up digital transmitters.
However, it has only been allocated $5 million for the current year by the Zimbabwe’s treasury, as country battles a crippling economic crisis.
Rufaro Zaranyika, the acting chief executive officer of Transmedia, is doubtful that Zimbabwe will meet the 2013 SADC deadline to migrate to digital broadcasting.
“As it is at the moment if we don’t get government support, it’s very unlikely that we will be able to meet the SADC 2013 deadline,” said Zaranyika.
He is fully aware though that “the switch is compulsory and any country which decides not to migrate will not be protected from signal interference from other countries” as the ITU will “not be able to protect” its signals.
“It is also a possibility that we might experience a media blackout if we don’t digitise,” Zaranyika said.
Rufaro Zaranyika, though, is optimistic that Zimbabwe will meet the 2015 ITU deadline.
