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Digital TV decoder registrations on the rise

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 06 Mar 2017
Government is in a rush to get qualifying households to register for subsidised digital TV decoders.
Government is in a rush to get qualifying households to register for subsidised digital TV decoders.

Some 36 042 households registered to receive government-subsidised set-top boxes (STBs) during February, says the Department of Communications (DOC).

Government has promised to subsidise five million TV-owning households with free STBs.

According to the department, last month's registration of 36 042 households is a significant increase compared to 11 709 registrations captured in January.

In a statement, the DOC says demand for government-subsidised digital TV decoders is on the rise. "It is encouraging to see the growth in demand. The increase in registrations is a strong indication of the success of the migration project," says minister Faith Muthambi.

"Awareness is growing day by day and people appreciate the tangible benefits that come with this process."

After missing the 2015 digital migration deadline for countries to migrate from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT), the DOC subsequently began the registration process for STBs required to transmit digital signals.

Last October, the department began phase one of government's analogue switch-off project, with households in the Northern Cape switching to DTT. These are households in towns that sit in the core Square Kilometre Array (SKA) area and require the use of encrypted STBs for digital migration.

To date, a total of 18 analogue transmitters have been switched off since October last year in the surrounding SKA area, according to the department.

It adds that the Northern Cape and Free State provinces have already gone through an STB installation phase. This month, the installation of digital TV decoders will resume in other borderline provinces such as Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

"Digital terrestrial television services provide us with a rich opportunity to realise the vision of building a people-centred and inclusive information society," notes Muthambi.

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