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Digital TV deadline comes, and goes

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 17 Jun 2015
Communications minister Faith Muthambi is confident local television viewers will not face broadcasting disruptions from today.
Communications minister Faith Muthambi is confident local television viewers will not face broadcasting disruptions from today.

South Africa will today officially miss the international deadline to turn off analogue broadcast and shift to a digital television era.

The deadline, set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2006, affects all the countries around the world that signed the Geneva conference.

Migrating to digital television was meant to free up more spectrum as the new technology is more efficient, which would help SA meet its aims of ubiquitous broadband by 2020.

From today, the ITU will no longer protect analogue broadcast, leaving those who live in border towns susceptible to having their viewing interrupted by a neighbouring country's TV stations. However, communications minister Faith Muthambi is confident South African television viewers will not face broadcasting disruptions from today.

This is because SA has signed agreements of cooperation with Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique. Namibia and Zimbabwe are finalising these agreements of cooperation.

In a statement, the Department of Communications (DOC) says the purpose of these deals is to "harmonise" the use of spectrum to make sure there is no interference. "The measure of the success of the engagements that the minister has had is that all these countries are assured that the 17th of June will come and go without any major negative impact on their analogue television services."

Lost opportunity

However, analysts have warned analogue interference is the least of the consequences of SA missing the deadline. Among other issues cited is the economic consequence of lagging in freeing up high-demand spectrum, which can be used to expand broadband penetration in rural areas, and the consequential damage to the country's reputation.

The lack of spectrum also means operators have to squeeze their assets as they need to refarm frequency to rollout long-term evolution, and many South Africans are cut off from technological tools that could help them learn, develop a business, or find new opportunities.

The DOC notes the digital migration project is still a "top priority" for the department. It adds the Digital Migration Project Management Office is hard at work to ensure set-top boxes are manufactured and delivered to complete the migration process.

South Africans will require decoders to convert the new signal for viewing on analogue television sets. The government will provide free set-top boxes and decoders to about five million homes.

However, the tender to produce these boxes, which has been awarded to all 27 bidders, has yet to be issued because free-to-air broadcaster etv has gone to the North Gauteng High Court to ask that Muthambi's latest iteration of the Broadcasting Digital Migration policy be amended to protect free-to-air broadcasters. The matter was heard last month, but a decision is still pending.

South Africa, which has missed several deadlines to turn digital broadcast on, and analogue television off, intends to migrate in 18 to 24 months, although a turn on date has yet to be announced.

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