Despite Ghana’s slow transition from analogue to digital terrestrial, satellite operator, SES, has succeeded in breaking the digitization market by reaching four million TV homes in Ghana.

A Satellite Monitor study commissioned by SES after expanding its technical reach in Ghana, now serves four million TV homes, compared to two million in 2015.

According to the results, satellite has seen a rapid growth in Ghana aside becoming the leading delivery mode in Ghana.

The nationwide study, conducted between October and December 2017, disclosed that out of six million TV homes, four million are directly reached by satellite, an 83% increase compared to 2015 while the remaining two million homes are fed by terrestrial networks, representing a 40% decline since 2015.

The breakdown by the world-leading satellite operator with more than 50 satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) also illustrates the important role of satellite for the digital switchover, serving 95% of digital TV homes.

This means that Digital TV has expanded in the country, with 69% of homes receiving digital TV signals, up from 40% in 2015.

The annual market research study, commissioned by SES and carried out by various independent institutes, was conducted in Ghana in 2013 and 2015 with the current study launched in Accra on Tuesday.

In an interview with www.ghanaweb.com, Vice President Marketing at SES, Paul Freeman, said he sees a potential market upsurge when it comes to digitization in Ghana.

He revealed that Ghana adopted more quickly than other African market places like Nigeria, Morocco, Tanzania, and Uganda, hence Ghana was the most promising in terms of large investment opportunities.

Meanwhile, Vice President of Sales & Market Development for Africa, SES Video, Clint Brown, said the Satellite Monitor results for the Ghanaian market clearly showed the strong role of satellite broadcasting within the television infrastructure and SES as an enabler to bring digital TV to the highest number of homes in the country.

According to him, his outfit is committed to boosting TV growth in the Ghanaian market, as well as “helping broadcasters and content programmers seize opportunities to gain more viewers. Our extensive reach in the market, along with our video end-to-end solutions, will certainly contribute to achieving that goal.”