State of Broadcasting and Digital Migration in the Region • https://zimbabwe.misa.org Zambia has to date supplied 1 million set top boxes to consumers and 250 000 satellite decoders to those consumers who cannot be covered by the DTT network. The DTT migration was well planned and executed. POLICY FRAMEWORKS PUT IN PLACE TO INFLUENCE DTT MIGRATION10 11 12 Countries in the region put in place policies to facilitate smooth implementation of the digital migration. In some countries digital migration was handled at the highest level of cabinet and digital migration policies were produced. Such was the case with Zambia, Malawi and South Africa. Some countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique only took the path of gazetting statutory instruments to define the digital migration trajectories. Policy outcomes The policy outcomes converge across nations and are as follows • Proper coordinated transition from analogue to digital broadcasting • Increased production and accessibility of high quality local content • Increased fair trade among players in the broadcasting industry • Increased distribution of TV signals for all broadcasters • Increased efficiency in utilisation of the frequency spectrum ( digital dividend 1 and digital dividend 2) Policy priority areas • Protection of the local broadcasting industry from domination by foreign players who have massive financial muscle • Rural access to bridge the rural urban digital divide • Establishment of public signal distributor to allow infrastructure sharing • To put in place financing mechanisms, DBM is capital intensive • Coordinate public awareness of the DTT migration process • Production of high quality local content The key guiding principle on which the policies were developed was the commitment by governments to facilitate a smooth and cost effective digital migration to achieve the following: 10Digital Migration Policy Zambia 11Digital Migration Policy Malawi 12Digital Migration Policy South Africa 18