Botswana TV move draws fire

Botswana has adopted the Japanese standard for digital terrestrial television instead of the European standard favoured by many of its neighbours, a newspaper report has said, prompting sharp criticism from an industry body.

According to Botswana's DailyNews newspaper, that Southern African country's government has adopted the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard for digital broadcasts, rather than the second generation of the Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T2) standard adopted by South Africa and most other nations in the region.

South Africa, which had committed itself to the European standard, vacillated a few years ago under intense lobbying by Japan and Brazil. Brazil has adopted a variation of the ISDB-T standard. However, after nine months of debate - and a change in communications minister - the country adopted a newer version of the European standard.

Botswana's decision to adopt the Japanese technology has now drawn fire from the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association (SADIBA), an industry forum, which says in a statement that the decision will put Botswana "on the back foot".

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