An Analysis of the Challenges and Benefits of Digital Migration in Zambia

Digitization is the current trend in Television broadcasting, both in Zambia and the world over. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), set 2015 as the year for the entire broadcasting stations in the world to go digital in order to have better signal quality and increase in the capacity of broadcast transmission networks by improving spectrum efficiency. Despite these and many other advantages that come with digital migration, Zambia is yet to realize the full benefits of digital migration implementation. It’s against this background that the study was conducted to assess the challenges of digital migration process and its benefits in Zambia. The emphasis was on assessing the television digital migration implementation process; examine the challenges of switching from analogue to digital technology and its benefits. To this effect, a quantitative research design was used on a sample of 300 stakeholders who had direct influence on the process to determine their views. The data collected was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to categorise the challenges of the migration process and its benefits. The results established that lack of awareness by the public was a major challenge was encountered. In addition, inadequate infrastructure for digital migration coupled with inadequate funding towards the hindered the process of migration. However, the study also established that the country has benefited from migrating from analog to digital broadcasting. Notable ones include; quality of transmission, improved content delivery, and ability of the viewers to view more than one TV channel at once thereby giving them a better viewing pleasure among other benefits. In view of the challenges and benefits of the digital migration to the country, the study recommends that deliberate policies should be put in place to ensure that the infrastructure needed for the digital migration are readily available and that Government should create public awareness with regards to the importance of the digital migration process to allow for more public participation.