Tanzania digital TV awareness campaign planned

The Tanzanian Government is to embark on a public awareness campaign in the run up to the migration to digital television in the East African country at the end of this year. A technical committee has been formed with experts from the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology, a state official has told local press. "TCRA has already started educating the people but we think that there is a need of conducting a mass campaign as majority of the people are not aware of the process," Charles Kitwanga, deputy minister, Communication, Science and Technology is quoted as saying in the Tanzanian newspaper, The Guardian. "People with digital televisions will not be required to install decoders to receive the free to air channels, because the sets are capable of receiving digital signals. However if they want to access more channels they will be required to buy them from the service providers," he added. However, those with analogue television sets will need to install a decoder in order to continue to receive free to air television channels such as ITV, Channel Ten, Star TV and TBC1, Kitwanga said. Decoders are currently priced between 70,000/- and 100,000/-, according to the TCRA. The global deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the world to migrate to digital television transmission (DTT) is 2015, but East African countries, including Tanzania, have set 31 December 2012 as the deadline for analogue switch off.