At a time when many African countries are struggling to complete their transition to DTT, the French authorities, through the Directorate-General for Media and Cultural Industries (DGMIC), are launching a public consultation in France on the future of television broadcasting and distribution methods in France, particularly DTT, which is only guaranteed until 2030.
18% of households connected exclusively to digital terrestrial television
According to the most recent data, only 18% of households equipped with a television set are exclusively connected to DTT in France.
These households, which exclusively receive digital terrestrial television, have a very specific profile: they are most often composed of a single person, 75% of the people in the household are over 50 years old and are either unemployed or belong to the less privileged socio-professional categories (CSP-) located in towns with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants.
The question arises as to whether it is appropriate to continue with DTT in its current form or to gradually organize a transition to other modes of broadcasting.
What was the purpose of the investments made to roll out DTT in Africa?
In French-speaking Africa, countries have invested billions of CFA francs to replace analog TV with digital terrestrial TV, and the rollout of DTT, initially planned for 2015, has been significantly delayed in many sub-Saharan African countries.
Today, in countries that have completed the digital transition, only a small proportion of the population watches DTT. Satellites and cable already occupy a prominent place in Africa and have enabled television to develop considerably over the past 30 years. The benefits cited at the time to convince leaders to launch DTT were improved image quality and the ability to significantly increase the number of channels. However, these two benefits proved insufficient, compared to the existing offering, to enable DTT to gain traction.
A little history
It should not be forgotten that DTT was launched under pressure from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), mainly to free up some of the analog TV frequencies for telecom operators.
While these freed-up frequencies were sold by governments to telecom operators at a high price and enabled the development of 4G and 5G, in Africa, curiously, no one—neither operators, governments, the press, nor public opinion—seems to be concerned about these colossal investments made for frequencies that are now available and could bring in a lot of money for governments and, above all, significantly improve access to mobile internet.
Of course, as should have been the case with digital terrestrial television, we must be very careful when drawing analogies. The pressure to improve internet services in Africa is not the same as in Europe: the population's income level, the need for authorities to maintain control over the internet, etc., are not the same.
Nevertheless, in a few years' time, other modes of transmission will dominate the market in both Africa and Europe. Faced with telecom operators, other players such as Starlink, Eutelsat, and Amazon are preparing to exploit the opportunity to offer affordable internet services in sub-Saharan Africa, which has a population of over 1.1 billion. The window of opportunity for governments to recoup their investments will then close.