Maldives Broadcasting Commission meets the Japanese survey team on the introduction of digital terrestrial broadcasting in Maldives

October 14, 2014

Maldives Broadcasting Commission met with the Japanese team surveying on the introduction of digital terrestrial broadcasting in Maldives.

This survey is being carried after President Yameen Abdul Gayoom announced that the government of the Maldives has decided to adopt the Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDBT) as the national terrestrial digital television broadcasting standard in the Maldives with the aid of Japan, pursuant to discussions held with Japanese Prime Minister Abe on his official trip to Japan early this year.

This survey being carried out from 14-30th of October in order to understand the present situation and needs of the Maldivian broadcasting sector in relation to digital terrestrial television broadcasting and to examine the issues and find appropriate solutions for the smooth migration to DTTB.

In addition to the series of meetings held with the Commission, the survey team will be meeting with Private Broadcasters, Maldives Broadcasting Corporation, Communication Authority of Maldives , UNDP, Ministry of Finance and Treasury, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Disasters Management Centre.

In the meeting held with JICA’s team, President of the Commission Mohamed Shahyb warmly received and welcomed the team.  He also expressed the current difficulty in providing the signal of all broadcasters throughout the nation as there is no such network established in Maldives due to high cost. But with ISDBT technology developed by Japan, it will be beneficial as most local channels can be broadcasted terrestrially nationwide through one network. He also conveyed his gratitude and thanked the Prime Minister and the people of Japan for its pledge of providing assistance to carry out the vast project costing more than 20 million U.S. dollars. 

In the meeting, the Commission also shared with the JICA’s survey team the report on migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting formulated by International Telecommunication Union.

Vice President Abdullah Sujau, Commissioner Ibrahim Ashraf and Secretary General Noora Ali participated in today’s meeting.