Kyrgyzstan to Go Digital

A new plan to switch to digital broadcasting in Kyrgyzstan could accelerate the growth of private TV and radio, say NBCentralAsia experts.



Last week, the Kyrgyz government approved an outline plan that would lay the groundwork for a complete shift to digital broadcasting all over the country.



The country currently has 47 different television stations. The main transmitters, however, are controlled by the state and between them provide Kyrgyz state television with 90 per cent coverage of the country. The small number of private TV companies can only broadcast to large towns and nearby areas.



Media-watchers interviewed by NBCentralAsia say the plan should help existing private TV stations to develop and encourage new ones to appear, since the digital system is vastly superior to analogue technology and will work to the advantage of commercial broadcasters.



NBCentralAsia’s political commentators similarly back the creation of a unified digital system for all media, noting that the plan envisages all broadcasters getting equal access to the system, whoever owns them, and that this will attract greater investment.



All that has to happen for the project to become reality is for the government to produce a specific action plan and find the money to buy the right technology.



By an unhappy coincidence, the plan went before the government at about the same time as an attack on Piramida, a private TV station regarded as independent and sometimes pro-opposition in its views.



Two staff members were beaten up and transmission equipment was set on fire in the September 28 incident. The equipment had only just been installed. Civil society groups accused the authorities of persecuting the independent media.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)