Satellite television is complementary to rather than in competition with terrestrial television, according to Dave Coles, executive of business development at digital distribution company Platco.
Coles was speaking at the 2014 SatCom and World Rural Telecoms Congress Africa event, which kicked off in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday.
“While DTT’s [digital terrestrial television] end user equipment is affordable, the cost of rolling out and maintaining the networks are very high as compared to satellite,” he said.
Therefore, he said the two systems should complement each other.
He said a system of this nature had already been rolled out in Namibia because the country is too vast to only service with DTT, and a country like Kenya would be well suited to making use of both.
Coles also said DTT falls short in its ability to carry capacity.
“DTT offers limited capacity to carry such services as HD,” he said, while “there is no limitation on the spectrum you can use on satellite”.
HumanIPO reported last month MultiChoice was set to expand its DTT offering in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ghana has also expressed itsintent to complete its digital migration by December 2014 in order to increase viewing quality in the county.
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