Smart TV Launched in Ghana on DTT
Ghana has become the first African country to have SMART TV, a new digital terrestrial television service. The service was launched by Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) in collaboration with Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and a commercial roll-out will take place in the next few weeks.
The service offers both pay-TV service and free-to-air service of existing local stations on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network. SMART TV will initially air in Accra and Kumasi and will be extended to other regions in Ghana in the near future.
Future Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) services in Ghana are based on DVB-T technology and MPEG-4/H.264 video compression.
Smart TV belongs to a Swedish multinational company called Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) which is partnering Fox International Channel as the only platform to provide Fox Entertainment in Ghana. It starts operations in Ghana with 16 channels including FOX, Showtime, Star, TRACE Tropical, Setanta Africa, BBC News, HiNolly, HomeBase, GOD TV, Kids, NET2, Viasat1, TV3 Ghana, GTV and TV Africa. Smart TV is set to launch in Kenya and Uganda later this year.
Source: GhanaWeb
Item added: 17th May 2010



Ghana to complete Digital Migration by 2013
Ghana plans to complete its migration from analogue to digital TV by 2013 according to Mr. Edmund Yirenkyi Fianko, Secretary of National Digital Broadcasting Migration Technical Committee (NDBMTC). He was speaking at a day's workshop organised by the National Communication Authority (NCA) in Accra on Friday (7th May) to brief the media on progress made by NDBMTC charged to make policy recommendations to government for a smooth and successful transition from analogue to digital transmission. The 24-member committee inaugurated early this year, was mandated to consult widely all stakeholders and monitor performance of other countries within Africa to be able to present credible and practical policy recommendations to realise objectives of digital broadcasting migration in Ghana.
Mr. Fianko said the committee had already started a pilot project and in addition, projected that by 2012 it would have completed covering all regional capitals and their environs. "The regional agreement for digital services has been reached in the frequency bands 174-230 MHz and 470-862 MHz", he added.
Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) launched a pilot DTT Project in Accra in November 2008 with transmissions covering a 15km radius around GBC’s Kanda Premises, which covers Accra and Tema. The pilot is a collaboration of Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB), TV Africa, Net 2 and CNBC Africa. About 300 Set Top Boxes were installed in some Government and private institutions, including pubs, hospitals, salons, private homes and advertising agencies in both Accra and Tema.
NGB Ghana Ltd is a Ghanaian-Swedish (Next Generation Broadcasting AB based in Stockholm, Sweden) joint venture, established in 2006. NGB Ghana Ltd as a service operator is launching a Digital Television Pay TV services in Ghana branded SMART TV. The service will provide both Pay TV and free to air services.
Main source: GhanaWeb
Item added: 17th May 2010



DMTV enlarges Mobile DVB-H TV in Africa
Nokia Siemens Networks is providing mobile television provider DMTV with a state-of-the-art Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) solution in Ghana, Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria. The system will allow operators across the region to provide an enhanced TV viewing experience on multiple devices, including the latest Nokia phones, according to a recent press release.
Aleksi Toikkanen, Head of Consulting and Systems Integration for DMTV at Nokia Siemens Networks said, “We are glad to support DMTV to be among the first to launch OMA BCast compliant mobile television broadcasts in Africa. With our open standard solution we help DMTV attract new customer groups with a state of the art Mobile TV service. We are excited with the prospect of DMTV becoming the largest DVB-H broadcaster in the continent. Knowing the specific market in Africa we foresee huge growth potential in connecting people via mobile television and the Internet.”
Source: Nokia Siemens Networks Press release
Item added: 6th July 2009







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Last page update: 17th May 2010, Barry Tew