Times they say have changed and now we’re surrounded by various types of Televisions which include plasma TVs, LED TVs, 4K TVs, UHDTV and so on.
You get the picture (no pun intended).
When we were making use of our old tube TVs, we were on an analog signal. Those TVs made use of antennas to get television signals which enabled us to watch our favorite TV programs.
Presently we’re living in a digital world and things are fast moving. Majority of our homes don’t have those Tube TVs any longer. Most homes have DSTV decoders and different types of decoders to watch their TV programs. If you have one of those new digital flat screen Televisions and you don’t have an antenna or a decoder, then you’re missing a lot when it comes to watching television.
In any case, things will change soon.
Ghana will be migrating from Analogue to Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting sometime next year from now (The previous dates were put in March and April 2016 however 2017 appears to be more likely).
So what precisely does that mean?
What is Digital TV Migration?
Digital migration or switchover is the process by which all types of analog TV broadcasting will be replaced by digital tv.
This basically means if you have an “old” television which uses an antenna, you will be out of luck with regards to watching local channels like GTV and TV3. All those channels will now be broadcasted digitally. So those old tube television you might have used will now become out of date.
Or, on the other hand possibly not?
The good thing about this digital television is that you can easily purchase an external device (decoder or set top box) which enables the old Tube TVs to receive the digital signals captured over the air by the antenna and decodes the digital signal.
The Digital Standard
If you have recently purchased a new Flat screen television, you shouldn’t be worried about purchasing a decoder as most of the new TVs have inbuilt digital tuners.
Also, many countries in Europe and Asia have already gone through the digital television migration. Of course, migrations aren’t always smooth in the sense that many people as of now still stick onto their old Tube TVs.
One of the benefits of Digital television is a clearer picture quality. If you’ve previously used those old TVs with an antenna, sometimes you had will have to adjust the antenna to get a better picture quality.
With digital television, that issue is now in the past. You can also get information about the TV program you’re watching all thanks to the information provided by the TV station provider. Also, if you are watching a movie, you can hit the “information” button on your remote and get an electronic program guide which will include feature show information, also the start and end times. You can likewise get information about the upcoming TV programs.
So which Television stations will you get when digital migration kicks off? Here’s a small list of it:
GTV
TV3
TV Africa
Crystal TV
Metro TV
Viasat1
Net-2
e-TV Ghana
GhOne
Top TV
UTV
At What Point Would We Get All This Digital TV Goodness?
Well, the digital migration was supposed to happen in 2017 however it’s been pushed further to 2018.
The government is right now doing its best to create awareness about the digital switchover and offering some free digital decoders to a few people.
This is not going to be easy though. Once the switch happens, a few people will be forgotten. It won’t be a smooth ride.
It ought to be interesting when the switch happens. I’m also anticipating it. Digital TV comes with a lot of perks and I’m happy Ghana is one of the few countries in West Africa looking towards the future of Television.
