Technology and Digital Media in Africa
In the news today, Kenya has launched digital television (DTV) broadcasting through the national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC). This is a landmark event since the full switch over from analogue TV to DTV is expected to be completed by June 2012 in Kenya. DTV will go live in Nairobi on KBC from today and is expected to be available throughout most of Kenya’s major towns and cities in time for the FIFA 2010 World Cup next year. Owners of analogue televisions will be required to acquire digital TV set-top boxes so as to access the DTV signals.
According to Wikipedia, DTV has several advantages over analogue TV, the most significant being that digital channels take up less bandwidth, and the bandwidth needs are continuously variable, at a corresponding reduction in image quality depending on the level of compression as well as the resolution of the transmitted image. This means that digital broadcasters can provide more digital channels in the same space, provide high-definition television service, or provide other non-television services such as multimedia or interactivity. DTV also permits special services such as multiplexing (more than one program on the same channel), electronic program guides and additional languages (spoken or subtitled). The sale of non-television services may provide an additional revenue source.
In today’s Business Daily, there is a story on the fact that the relatively low penetration of internet access in Kenya is ultimately limiting the potential of online advertising. This article seems to mirror alot of what I had to say in my recent two part posting on how Internet marketing is set to disruptively re-invent the Kenyan Ad Agency. Its good to read see I am not the only one who thinks that there are some serious changes required in how marketing is currently done in Kenya through largely traditional media and not digital media like the Internet. For the full story, go here>
This is an article by G. Pascal Zachary in the New York Times about the burgeoning digital landscape in Nairobi, Kenya. I loved this article since it shows the sharp contrast between the fact that Kenya is becoming a digital services hub but at the same time faces numerous challenges to becoming a global hot spot like India, China and the Philippines. The full article can be found here.
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