In the news today, Kenya has launched digital television (DTV) broadcasting through the national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC). This is a landmark event since the full switch over from analogue TV to DTV is expected to be completed by June 2012 in Kenya. DTV will go live in Nairobi on KBC from today and is expected to be available throughout most of Kenya’s major towns and cities in time for the FIFA 2010 World Cup next year. Owners of analogue televisions will be required to acquire digital TV set-top boxes so as to access the DTV signals.

According to Wikipedia, DTV has several advantages over analogue TV, the most significant being that digital channels take up less bandwidth, and the bandwidth needs are continuously variable, at a corresponding reduction in image quality depending on the level of compression as well as the resolution of the transmitted image. This means that digital broadcasters can provide more digital channels in the same space, provide high-definition television service, or provide other non-television services such as multimedia or interactivity. DTV also permits special services such as multiplexing (more than one program on the same channel), electronic program guides and additional languages (spoken or subtitled). The sale of non-television services may provide an additional revenue source.