SBC goes digital |30 June 2018
The Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) has made history by going digital after 35 years running on the analog system.
It was Vice-President Vincent Meriton who had the honour to press the button to launch the corporation into Digital Territorial Television (DTT) from the analog system, through a video, on Thursday afternoon, the eve of our 42nd Independence Day anniversary.
With SBC now on DTT, thus providing high quality transmission in terms of images and sound, chief executive Berard Duprès said that the analog system will be decommissioned in three months and urged people without compatible smart television, to get their Set Top Box so as to be able receive SBC’s television broadcast.
The first programme to be aired digital by SBC on Thursday afternoon was the news flash in French and followed by the transmission of the World Cup football match between Senegal and Colombia.
Mr Duprès added that the DTT system should be covering the whole of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue but has asked members of the public who are not receiving the signal to get in contact with SBC to receive attention.
Apart from the high quality in transmission, the change has also brought along multiple choices in terms of two prime channels, SBC1 and SBC2 and other channels like CGTN Documentaries, TV 5 Monde, Aljazeera, CGTN, DW, France24, Russia Today (RT), TiVi 5 Kids and others. Most of the important happenings will be broadcast on SBC1 and will be repeated later on SBC2. The two prime channels will run from 6am to 12am and will continue with the transmission of CNN and BBC after. SBC has also changed its logo which is now in the form of a coco de mer.
Present to witness the historic transmission change were SBC’s chairman Gerard Lafortune, French ambassador to Seychelles Lionel Majesté-Larrouy, former chief executive Ibrahim Afif, SBC board members and staff, other invitees and representatives of the African Union Communication (AUCOM), SBC’s affiliated partner in the DTT project.
The ceremony started with a video on the journey of SBC into DTT which all started in 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, during a regional tele-communication conference where the 116 member countries of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) agreed to phase out the analog system and to switch to DTT. Out of 54 countries venturing for the system, Seychelles is the 11th country to go DTT.
Addressing the gathering, Mr Lafortune said the change marks a milestone in the corporation’s modernisation and being on the new system, SBC has to now look into better and higher quality content so as to better educate, entertain and inform the highly expected audience as the focus automatically now shifts from technology to content.
“In SBC’s context, the focus now shifts from technology to content. Multiple channels, higher definition pictures and sound demands that more content and higher quality content needs to be produced and acquired,” Mr Lafortune said.
Most of the SBC staff present at the ceremony were very happy on the accomplishment but recognised that pressure is on to provide quality content to match the service.
“Well, it’s an immense relief as we were always conscious that we were not on par level with other international channels and now we know we have caught up and to add on, the way I see it, SBC is now in a position to move into any technology on its own without having to wait for other organisations to decide for us,” said long-time SBC worker Pat Mathiot
According to Mr Duprès, SBC’s next future plan is to move in Over the Top Television internet service (OTT), where television broadcast could be watched from anywhere.
The DTT project has been financed by government and external partners. Formerly the Radio Television Seychelles (RTS) in 1983, the name was changed to SBC in 1992.
