African politicians’ promise of more TV channels in crisper, high-definition quality has seemingly faded into a fuzzy picture, as the continent’s migration from analogue to digital has become a painstakingly slow process. And while countries on the continent drag their feet on making the big switch, Africans could probably overlook digital TV broadcast altogether, and choose to watch their content online instead.

Back in 2006, at a world conference held by the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland; African politicians (perhaps somewhat ambitiously) set a deadline of 2015 to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting signals.

The worldwide digital migration standard, called Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVBT), comprises higher definition signals that are capable of having more channels.

However; ministers - particularly those from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region - decided to go one step further, and adopt the second generation (DVBT-2) signal: a much more superior standard than that of DVBT.

The planned digital migration dictated that each household would require a set-top box, capable of ‘decoding’ the signals.

“The decision to make the move was brought on by the fact that on an analogue signal the spectrum is congested and on analogue one frequency spectrum only broadcasts one channel,” according to Zingisa Taho, head of regulatory affairs southern Africa, Multichoice.

“However, on a digital signal you are able to launch more channels on one spectrum,” Taho said.

Six years after the (in)famous ITU conference, and only Mauritius has managed to fully migrate to the digital standard.

Other African nations - such as Ghana, Zambia and Kenya - have also kick-started their plans to migrate to digital, but they have not fully made the switch. South Africa is yet another example of an African country that has consistently pushed forward its digital migration deadlines.

The intentions to switch over to digital TV are all good and well (albeit the actions to achieve this feat seem to be slow or even non-existent).

But if it’s more content Africans want, they may as well look to streaming TV websites that can already provide many viewing options. Taking the internet TV option into consideration, Africans can spare themselves the long wait associated with the bureaucratic processes that their countries are going through on their path to digital TV.

Faster broadband is on our doorstep with various undersea cables such as SEACOM and Eassy reaching our shores. According to telecoms analyst Dobek Pater, by 2014 the total terminal connectivity out of Africa on submarine cables is expected to be more than 60Tbps with existing and planned cables. This could result in a ‘glut’ of broadband.

Pater even expressed concerns that it will be difficult to foresee if these cables will use their full capacity over their 20-year life spans, as this will depend on demand.

If this is the case, the days of even relying on a TV signal to watch your favourite show in Africa could be over thanks to streaming websites.

One streaming website that has already illustrated the strong appetite among Africans (whether they live on the continent or abroad) for local content online is iROKOtv.com.

iROKOtv, a movie website streaming Nollywood films, has reportedly grown its subscription base to half a million in just six months, becoming, as many pundits have put it, Africa’s ‘Netflix’.

Furthermore, if international streaming websites such as Hulu decide to open up their services to regions outside of the US, then it could mean that Africans would have free access to the some of the latest TV series, without even paying a cent.

If this happens, we’ll all be wondering why we even bothered switching from analogue a digital TV signal.

Quality is important, but so is the amount of content. And I can’t help but shake the feeling that the already slow process of digital migration could just be a waste of resources, as our choices online are going to be immense, and even more currently available.

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba is ITWeb Africa's editorial assistant.