Burundi moves from analog to digital television

An expert explains to President Nkurunziza how digital television works

“From today onwards, with the intention to fulfill our international obligations of the 2006 Geneva Agreement that Burundi has signed, our country will progressively move from analog to digital TV broadcasting”, said Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza in his speech at the inaugural ceremony of digital TV broadcasting at the Burundi National Television in the morning of 19 December 2016.

He noted that Burundi had to adopt digital broadcasting on 17 June 2015 and apologized on behalf of Burundi government for failing to meet its obligations in due time. “We extend our apologies to everyone”, he said.

The Minister in charge of communication, information and media technologies, Nestor Bankumukunzi, said that, though the country had ratified the convention of the implementation of digital television in 2006, it was not until 2010 that the first steps towards the concretization of the agreement were taken. “Different relevant commissions were set up to prepare the ground. The legal and statutory context was also created. Then, followed the search for funds”, he said.

Minister Bankumukunzi said it was thanks to credit from the Chinese Exim Bank and the promise of digital TV decoders by China that the project was able to start.

President Nkurunziza said the changeover will be progressive, starting from the municipality of Bujumbura, to Bujumbura province, to the centre of the country, and eventually to the entire national territory.

In the early stage of the implementation of the digital television, there will be a distribution of digital TV decoders to people with analog TV sets before they buy digital sets, the minister in charge of communication said.

Salvator Nizigiyimana, Director General of Burundi National Radio and Television (RTNB), said the first benefit of the changeover will be that remote areas that could not receive signals in the analog era will be reached by digital broadcasting.

Burundi President also inaugurated the Bujumbura Fiber Optics Metropolitan Area Network.