In October, the Department of Communications (DOC) will announce the switch-off date of the analogue TV signal in towns located near the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the Northern Cape.
In a statement, the DOC says set-top box (STB) registration and installation in the SKA towns has almost reached 99%.
More than 30 000 indigent households in the Northern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga and Limpopo have registered with the South African Post Office to receive STBs, according to the department.
This number, however, is still not even close to the five million households government plans to subsidise with STBs.
Despite this, the department insists the country's broadcasting digital migration project is well on track.
To date, the focal point for registration and installation of STBs has been in the borderline provinces, where television signal interference from neighbouring countries was greatest, says the DOC statement.
Minister Faith Muthambi says: "We are happy with the progress of this project despite its funding challenges. It was handed over to the ministry of communications on the 30th of January 2015, and three months later, on 18th of March 2015, the policy was gazetted. The first South African citizen received a subsidised set-top box in Keimos on 17th December 2015. All this happened within a12-month period."
According to the statement, the ministry has also embarked on a door-to-door registration awareness programme, specifically aimed at senior citizens and people with disabilities, as well as those families who, for credible reasons, are unable to go to their nearest Post Office for registration.
"We have to be creative on how we reach out to communities. Our goal is to ensure we get as many households as possible to sign up for the STBs," Muthambi adds.
SA missed the June 2015 deadline set by the International Telecommunication Union for countries to switch from analogue to digital terrestrial television.
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