Ericsson is set to showcase the future of technology from 01 to 15 November at the Ericsson Pavilion in Cape Town. Live demonstrations of interactive on-demand TV, 3G broadcast mobile TV and MeOnTV, which allows a person to appear on TV simply by making a video call from a standard 3G mobile phone, will take place at the Ericsson Pavilion located in the centre of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) Race Village at the V&A Waterfront.
The television industry is booming in Africa as many African nations liberalise their broadcast markets, stimulating considerable growth in the number of new TV stations on the continent, and plans are already in place to migrate TV from analogue to digital in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda.
Against this backdrop of rapid growth, the nature of TV is also changing from one-way broadcast access to on-demand content and interactive services that allow consumers to control what they watch, whenever they choose and on whichever screen they have access to – be it a widescreen high-definition TV, personal computer or mobile phone.
“Ericsson believes that the mobile phone could soon become the primary means of accessing TV services for many Africans,” confirms Sanjay Kaul, vice president for multimedia and systems integration at Ericsson market unit sub-Saharan Africa. “Already 300 million Africans have mobile phones and this number is projected to rise to 500 million by 2013. In addition, as 3G and DVB-H networks are rolled out across Africa, TV companies will be able to extend their reach to a previously unserved audience.”
Broadcasters and network operators will be the key drivers of this new TV space, but new business models and revenue streams will offer opportunities throughout the value chain from content owners to advertisers, as services become more personalised and targeted to specific consumer segments.
As a result it is critical that terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasters, as well as telecom operators choose the right technologies in order to efficiently migrate today’s one-way TV broadcast systems for tomorrow’s interactive and personalised services.
“The Ericsson vision is helping to evolve television,” concludes Kaul. “With its acquisition of TANDBERG television, Ericsson has the technology, business expertise and market reach to unite the TV and telecom industries and realise its vision – of people watching television through any service, using any device, anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, with operations in all 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ericsson is ideally placed to roll-out the technology required for next generation TV on the continent.”
