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SA to move to digital TV 'in two years'

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Pretoria, 25 Feb 2015
Sentech gets another R109 million for dual illumination this year.
Sentech gets another R109 million for dual illumination this year.

Budget 2015: South Africa's much delayed ambition to move TV off analogue signal and onto a digital platform is set to happen "within two years".

This is according to the Department of Communications' (DOC's) budget vote, which forms part of National Treasury's Estimates of National Expenditure document, released today to coincide with the annual budget speech.

Among the DOC's aims is to "manage digital broadcasting migration to ensure the successful migration from analogue to digital television in South Africa within two years". It notes its broadcasting digital migration programme seeks to move off the antiquated analogue signal, and will play "an important role in creating and supporting" small, medium and micro enterprises in the "digital domain".

SA has been travelling down the road towards digital migration since 2006, but the issue stalled at the end of 2012 over whether set-top boxes should be encrypted. Former communications minister Yunus Carrim tried to resolve the encryption impasse, but, despite his decree, Cabinet has yet to sort out the issue, almost a year after it was sent the Digital Migration Policy for finalisation.

Stalled process

In the absence of the policy, setting out SA's mandate on set-top box controls, a tender for subsidised boxes cannot be issued. The Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (USAASA) is meant to award tenders, worth a total of R4.3 billion, in the next few weeks.

USAASA is handling the subsidy scheme, and will receive R1 billion over the next three years. The agency plans to subsidise 791 000 decoders this year, a figure that falls to 181 160 next year before rising to 589 384 in 2016/17 and then 272 098 in 2017/18, some time after SA plans to turn off analogue signal.

Sentech, which has been tasked with ensuring digital signal covers all of SA, is remodelling its technical operations to prepare for the commercial launch of digital terrestrial television services. Cabinet has approved additional funding allocations to Sentech of R109 million in 2015/16 for simultaneous broadcast of digital and analogue signals.

The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, which oversees USAASA and Sentech, will support DOC to ensure "South Africa meets the International Telecommunication Union deadline of June 2015 for countries to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting," according to its budget vote. Analysts have already predicted SA will not meet this target.

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