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Digital TV delays pressurise Sentech

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 10 Jul 2014
All digital terrestrial sites will be complete by the end of next March, says Sentech.
All digital terrestrial sites will be complete by the end of next March, says Sentech.

By the end of next March, Sentech will have spent R1.95 billion on rolling out a digital terrestrial transmission network, the bulk of which will have gone towards capital items.

However, the signal provider warns in a recent presentation to a joint communications Parliamentary committee, that the continued delays in turning on digital television means it has to invest in the aging analogue network, which will affect profitability from its analogue segment, it warns.

Sentech adds that without a free-to-air commercial service, its financial performance will decline. It also has to spend an unfunded R78.7 million, because the dual-illumination period has dragged on longer than expected.

Work in progress

Recently-appointed communications minister Faith Muthambi is set to tackle the delayed move to digital television, which she sees as an imperative and crucial "to our country being on the cutting-edge on technology and it is long overdue".

Muthambi has issued a directive that "a programme of action to bring us up to speed be ready for pronouncement before the end of the 100 days period". She will consult through focused meetings with "key" industry players to see how this process can be set on a faster course of implementation.

SA's move off analogue television to digital - which has been in the pipeline since 2006 - has repeatedly been delayed. The latest snarl-up is a dispute between broadcasters over set-top box controls.

The former minister, Yunus Carrim, had sought to resolve an impasse caused when broadcaster etv took his predecessor, Dina Pule, to court over her decision to have Sentech manage controls. Controls are provided for in the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy.

Carrim's solution was to make controls mandatory for subsidised boxes, but to give broadcasters the option of whether to use the technology when distributing signal. This decision led to an outcry from TV stations, and the matter was not resolved before Carrim was redeployed.

Sentech notes the uncertainty around switching on digital television has led to challenges for broadcasters. It says analogue signal is still its primary revenue driver, but the "impending" commercialisation of digital television means analogue growth over the next three years will mainly be driven by inflation.

Revised plan

Sentech has revised its digital terrestrial network coverage targets in line with the Independent Communications Authority of SA's (ICASA's) final terrestrial broadcasting frequency plan, which was published last February.

The migration targets are population coverage of 84% and geographic coverage of 57.95%, and Sentech expects network rollout to be wrapped up by the end of next March, when new sites at Harrismith (Free State), Burgersfort (Limpopo), Holy Cross and Ngqeleni (Eastern Cape) are turned on. Sentech adds construction of 61 sites, meant to happen last year, was delayed because of drawn-out negotiations with local stakeholders and strike action beyond its control.

The gaps in terrestrial coverage will be filled by satellite, and the signal provider is also set to launch a mobile broadcasting pilot in the third quarter of the current financial year with infrastructure already installed at Brixton and Helderkruin sites, in Johannesburg.

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