info@businessghana.com
A Satellite Monitor Study has revealed that more Ghanaians have switched to the usage of flat screen digital television sets from the old analogue type “hunchback.” The Study on Ghana, also revealed that satellite had grown rapidly in the country, becoming the leading television delivery mode, with 65 per cent of homes receiving TV channels via satellite.
Satellite is by far the largest contributor to digital television in the world.
The study also illustrated the important role of satellite for the digital switchover serving 95 per cent of digital TV homes, as Digital TV had expanded in the country with 69 per cent of homes receiving digital TV signals up from 40 per cent in 2015.
The Study was commissioned by SES satellite, a world-leading satellite operator, which provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments and institutions.
It indicated that out of six million TV homes studied in Ghana in 2017, four million were directly reached by satellite, an 83 per cent increase compared to 2015. The remaining two million homes are fed by terrestrial networks, (a term used in reference to satellite technologies to distinguish between what is out in space and what is located on the earth’s surface), representing a 40 per cent decline since 2015.
Mr Ricardo Topham, the Senior Market and Business Analyst of SES, who presented the findings, said the Study was done in collaboration with Ipsos Ghana, in 2015 and 2017, which revealed that 23 per cent of homes own a High Definition Television (HDTV) in the year 2017 compared to 18 per cent in 2015.
The Satellite Monitor Study was launched in Accra on Tuesday to help customers to get the idea of how many dishes in homes that were actually pointing to the satellites where content sits. It was also to help advertisers to know the neighbourhood where content or broadcasters could go and advertise and be sure that their target homes were watching the contents.
Mr Topham said the Study revealed that Satellite was the major contributor to digital television in Ghana, with 95 per cent of digital television homes being served by satellite. He explained that SES serves virtually all satellite TV homes in Ghana, with 97 per cent of the people receiving TV channels from 28.2 degrees east, while other African countries including Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda were all involved in the satellite study.
By Lydia Kukua Asamoah/Stella Asare, GNA
