WOUGNET in partnership with the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) conducted a Digital Migration workshop in Uganda held at Colline Hotel Mukono on the 6th of February 2014.
The purpose of the National workshop was to create awareness and share information on digital migration, discuss the digital migration issues identified and a manifesto being developed by APC in order to build capacity and develop a common level of understanding amongst the stakeholders.
The output of the workshop will be agreement on the focus issue, interventions and outcomes for advocacy activities to raise awareness among consumers, media and civil society organisations.
The specific issues of the workshop focused on;
Cost implications of digital migration
Variety of programs
The quality of pictures
Availability of set top boxes
Waste management
Contribution of content according to needs of the consumers
There were presentations from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), Environmentalists and the Balancing Act Consultancy firm and many other stakeholders in attendance.
WOUGNET and UCC provided live updates on Twitter via their handles @wougnet and @UCC_Official respectively and also from the Facebook Page which attracted a lot of online Buz. Some of the key concerns raised in the workshop was the need to create opportunities for women to tap into the Digital Migration Project, the need to make the project more affordable, cost of the set top boxes, timeliness of the whole project, regional balance, need for more awareness and sensitization to all stakeholders including consumers as well speed up the whole process.
Samples of hundreds of Tweets that came through includes
Dial-a-Service @das_uganda Feb 6
@wougnet @UCC_Official when is #Uganda switching to Digital TV Migration
Esther Namitala @EssieTala Feb 6 For a successful #DigitalMigration in Ug, we need to adequately prepare the consumers’ brains cc @wougnet, @UCC_Official
Dial-a-Service @das_uganda Feb 6
@wougnet @UCC_Official how much does it cost to migrate to Digital TV Migration, will an average Uganda afford the amount.
francis ebro @francis_ebro Feb 6
@wougnet what will happen to all other analogue tv sets????
James Wire Lunghabo @wirejames Feb 6
@sourced I shudder to imagine that I will abandon my 16 year old LG 21 inch TV. @wougnet @UCC_Official
The workshop targeted a broad range of stakeholders including civil society, consumer groups, internet activists, journalists and media organizations.
Stay tuned for more photos at the Workshop!
WOUGNET Team