STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBA 5.0 Digital Migration The digital migration that was envisaged to be completed by mid of 2016 seems have finally taken off in earnest in early 2017. Phases 2 and 3 of the digital migration project which were estimated to cost US$273 million and are expected to cover the following have since commenced with the signing of an agreement between ZNBC and TopStar Company of China: a) Installation of transmission facilities to cover the rest of the country including areas where there is currently no analogue television; b) Construction of six (6) Provincial broadcasting stations in Chipata, Mansa, Chinsali, Kasama, Mongu and Kabwe. The other two provincial broadcasting stations in Solwezi and Choma were already under construction; c) Rehabilitation of Studios at ZNBC and ZANIS; d) Construction of a national operation centre of ZNBC and a broadcasting backup and disaster recovery facility in Kitwe e)Provision of equipment for ZANIS and ZNBC; f) Provision of l, 250, 000 STB decoders. xxiv Minister of Information Kampamba Mulenga explained that government had operationalized the special purpose vehicle in the name of TopStar Communications Company to roll out the digital migration phases 2 and 3 and ensure that there is efficiency. “…the company would operate the public signal distribution and ensure that all the 1, 250, 000 decoders were sold to the public, which carried 25 channels and should not cost more than K30 in monthly subscriptions…..government would ensure that all parts of the country received digital television services by installing 73 transmission sites across the country as well as rehabilitate and equip all ZNBC studios with state-of-the-art equipment in its digital migration process. ZNBC was digitalizing in line with the fulfilment of the global mandate.”xxv As part of the process of implementing the digital migration project in Phase 1, government set up a joint venture between ZNBC and StarTimes to operate the public signal distributor. In this partnership, a company called TopStar Communications Co. Limited was created with a shareholding where ZNBC owns 40% and StarTimes has 60%. This shareholding structure is, according to the Minister, in line with the Digital Migration Policy requirement for signal distributors which are regulated by the Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) Act. The channels currently broadcasting on the digital terrestrial television platform are ZNBC (TV1, TV2 and TV3), Prime TV, Convent Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Revelation TV, 25 | P a g e