WINDHOEK – Windhoek residents will no longer be able to view the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) television on analogue television as from December 15.
The NBC’s chief technology officer, Aldred Dreyer, yesterday said Okahandja and Rehoboth residents will also be affected by this move.
He said the NBC has set December 15 as the day on which the broadcaster’s analogue transmitter will be switched off for Windhoek.
This means that NBC television viewers who do not have the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) decoder will no longer have the signal to access the NBC 1 television channel.
As result, they will be forced to buy the decoder which provides six channels or alternatively remain without watching NBC television channels, he noted.
NBC television viewers who have DStv will not be affected as those who do not have DStv, he explained in a telephonic interview.
Dreyer explained that the corporation will switch off its analogue transmitter as part of the country’s move to comply with the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) digital migration deadline, which is June next year.
“We don’t want to switch off everyone in June (2015), it will be too much chaos. If we succeed we will tackle the other big towns,” he said.
He, however, explained that the corporation will first establish if many viewers are ready to migrate to digital before the bold move is undertaken.
This, he said, will be known for sure by December but he could not give an exact date.
Dreyer further explained: “If we see that a lot of viewers are not ready to switch (over to digital) then we will move the date to early next year.”
As part of encouraging viewers to migrate to digital television, Dreyer said the NBC has been holding road shows in various parts of the country.
There is an ongoing consumer awareness with campaigns to encourage people to buy the decoder for NBC television and radio.
The advantage of the decoder is that it has six channels, namely, NBC 1, NBC 2, NBC 3, One Africa television, TBN and Edu-TV on trial, Dreyer noted.
“All NBC radio services are accessible on the decoder and it has better picture and sound quality,” said Dreyer.
A VHF aerial is needed to connect to NBC digital in Windhoek, he said.
The decoder costs N$199.00. But war veterans, pensioners and the disabled will be able to purchase it at half that price, Dreyer said.
By Alvine Kapitako