State of Broadcasting and Digital Migration in the Region https://zimbabwe.misa.org Overview of digital broadcasting migration The digital broadcasting migration is a costly process for both the governments and citizens. There are costs for digital production equipment, transmission equipment and decoders or digitally enabled television sets. It is anticipated that the benefits derived from the digital migration process far outweigh the costs involved. The transition from analogue to digital transmission impacts television viewers, media companies and existing television channels in varying degrees. Generic benefits of Digital Migration Digital broadcasting enables utilisation of the scarce frequency spectrum far more efficiently than analogue technologies. Consequently the first benefit is the freeing up of valuable radio frequency spectrum that is used for analogue TV transmission. The freed space is referred to as digital dividend1 and has been earmarked for mobile broadband. The migration to digital broadcasting creates opportunities for the development, use and wide dissemination of local content. This advances the expression and the efficient communication of the knowledge and experience of all communities and nations. The creation and use of local content contributes to the integration of people from all walks of life. Digital migration therefore creates avenues for media freedom and content 1 www.itu.int 2 creation which subsequently ensures access by media practitioners to diverse information and views. This is also beneficial to ordinary citizens who are also guaranteed of further access to information. Access to information is also important for exercise of rights for purposes of promoting transparency and accountability and more broadly good governance. Technical benefits of digital broadcasting • the digital platform offers superior video and audio quality • the efficient spectrum use allows different content providers to be carried in a single frequency channel. The same frequency channel that carries one analogue TV service can carry up to 20 standard definition TV services or 6 high definition services plus 20 radio channels. • Digital broadcasting lowers transmission costs as the transmitters use a fifth of analogue power for the same coverage. • Digital transmission infrastructure allows optimum utilisation of resources since content service providers share the same infrastructure • The digital environment stimulates an increased participation in the broadcasting sector resulting from high demand for content and low investment start-up costs.