Macra drills Northern Region broadcasters on digital migration
Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) has advised Northern Region community radio stations on the need to acquire licenses to allow them to migrate from analogue to digital transmissions.
Macra acting director of legal services Daniel Chiwoni was speaking on Thursday at Sunbird Mzuzu when he briefed community radio broadcasters on the advantages of using modern broadcasting technology.
Chiwoni said by looking at current technology advancement at global level, Malawi has taken a step to issue digital operation licenses to some broadcasters.
“We have engaged our broadcasters on a new licensing framework that we already introduced. We want all broadcasters to migrate from old to the new licensing regime also known as converged licensing framework (CLF),” said Chiwoni.
He further said the broadcasters will be required to pay a one percent annual levy to Macra which will help cover costs of regulating the sector in monitoring the broadcasters.
“This levy is not new. Our friends in telecommunications have been paying this levy since Macra was established and every player in the information, communication technology (ICT) industry is supposed to comply,” Chiwoni said.
Director of Radio Tigawane Father Eugene Ngoma commended Macra for briefing the community radio broadcasters on the benefits for migrating from analogue to digital broadcasting.
