Migration to digital terrestrial television broadcasting: A case of Cameroon

Abstract

Cameroon is among the African states that signed agreement to the 2006 ITU recommendation for migration to digital terrestrial television broadcasting. Yet, upon evaluating the process in Africa, three years after the deadline, Cameroon was among four other nations whose status in the process was unknown. In order to find out the disconnect between Cameroon’s agreement to the ITU recommendation in 2006 and her seeming disinterested, this study sought to verify Cameroon’s status with respect to migration to DTTB, to identify migration challenges peculiar to Cameroon and to evaluate the reasons for her slow response to the ITU recommendations. Being chiefly qualitative, the study employed an exploratory design and by means of in-depth interviews, interacted with participants among whom were policy makers, editors in chief of media houses and lecturers of media studies in the University of Buea and University of Bamenda. The participants intimated that the said migration is at the experimental stage with CRTV as the main broadcaster. Yet most of the consumers still could not access the digital signals in their homes because they could not afford the appropriate devices. In addition, the participants identified advanced age of Cameroonian policy makers, lack of proper collaboration among the stakeholders, inadequate sensitization and mobilization of the people, disorder in the media sector as well as high cost on consumers and non availability of digital equipment, as major challenges to the switchover drive. Finally, evaluating the reasons for Cameroon’s slow response to the transition process, the study found that there could be a lack of political will on the part of Cameroon government. In conclusion, the study recommended that the government supports the project to make it work by providing subsidy scheme for the consumers, ensuring proper representation and collaboration among stakeholders, creating order in the media sector and promoting proper sensitization campaigns among the rural communities in particular.