With planning for accelerating digital migration across the country, the Zambian government announced a complete switchover to digital broadcasting from all analogue television services along the line of rail by 1 October 2017
Kampamba Mulenga, minister of information and broadcasting services, said that that all the towns along the line of rail from Chilabombwe to Livingstone will completely migrate to digital broadcasting as the scheduled deadline.
In a press meeting, Mulenga explained that she directed TopStar Communication Company Limited, the public signal distributor, in order to enhance its marketing campaigns in all these towns and districts across the line of rail, which will be affected by the analogue switch off.
In addition, she mentioned that she also directed the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to facilitate the transition of its licenses to digital broadcasting platforms in an urgent basis.
Leo Liao, CEO of TopStar, said that the company invested US$273mn to help the country’s objective to switch to the digital broadcasting services.
He added that TopStar, being the authorised public signal distributor in Zambia, will enable all the parts of the country to have an effective digital television signal, noting that the country’s aim towards a complete digital migration will help in providing capacity for transmitting more channels and better quality pictures for the citizens.
Mulanga said that the phase 1 of the project focused on establishing digital transmission in the urban centres across the line of rail and the phase 2 and phase 3 will look into the construction of provincial broadcasting stations and transmission sites across the entire country.
She further added that the equipment for 30 remote sites has already been supplied and installations are on the way to be completed by the end of July 2017.
