Retailers are misleading the public by claiming the television sets currently on shelves will pick up digital signal, despite manufacturers saying there are no sets in the market with this capability.
In the middle of this month, communications minister Roy Padayachie said SA would move to digital TV using the upgraded European DVB-T2 standard. The country had been testing digital broadcasting using the earlier DVB-T version.
However, South African retailers are clueless about what this means for the television-buying public.
ITWeb, posing as a consumer, yesterday called six retailers to enquire whether it was possible to buy a television with a built-in digital tuner and was given inaccurate information in four instances.
In order to view the next-generation broadcast, South Africans will either have to buy a set-top box, or a television set with a built-in digital tuner. However, as government has yet to wrap up several specifications around the standard, none of these items are currently being produced for the local market.
Ignorance isn't bliss
Despite the absence of stock, local retailers are either keen to flog whatever they have on their shelves, or are clueless about the impact of digital migration.
Three general retailers said current high-definition LCD or plasma sets would be able to pick up digital signal. However, high-definition refers to the quality of the image on screen, and has nothing to do with the signal input.
A specialist store staff member said some of Sony's range came with DVB-T tuners built in, which would allow for the digital signal to be viewed, without the additional expense of a decoder.
Off air
However, there are currently no televisions in the local market with built-in tuners that would pick up the digital signal once broadcast starts.
Sony SA's senior brand manager, Andrew Fraser, says the company had been bringing in TVs with digital DVB-T tuners. However, as the country has now elected to use the upgraded version, these sets will not be able to pick up the new signal, Fraser notes.
“The sets currently in the market will require an external set-top box in order to receive the terrestrial signal once the signal migration takes place, much like all the other TVs already in the market.”
About three-quarters of the TVs sold in SA last year were equipped with DVB-T tuners.
Fraser says the sets were brought in because of other functionality, not because of the tuner. Sony SA can not import DVB-T2 televisions, because government has yet to finalise the specifications, he adds.
LG also says there are currently no LG TVs in the market with digital tuners, because government has not finalised the specifications yet. “Once government has finalised these specs, LG will bring in TVs with the approved digital tuners.”
Samsung SA's product and marketing manager, Corrie Labuschagne, says the company will not include digital tuners until government has finalised outstanding issues, because the sets will be at risk of being “non-compliant” otherwise.
Clueless country?
Despite the change in standard, South Africans are not waiting for televisions with the correct tuners to become available, as sales of TV sets have not slowed down.
Massmart, which owns Game, Dion Wired and Makro, says TVs are still selling. Group corporate affairs executive Brian Leroni says audio visual sales have not dipped and the company is still seeing “double-digit growth in the category”.
JD Group concurs, saying TV sales have not slowed down since Padayachie's announcement.
Pick 'n Pay GM Dave Ramsden says: “Television sales in January have been strong and we have recorded double-digit sales growth this month.”
According to the Communications Regulators' Association of Southern Africa (Crasa), governments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region may require retailers to tell customers if TVs do not have a built-in tuner.
Crasa is an association of ICT regulators and other stakeholders in the information and communications industry in Southern Africa. It was set up in 1997 within a SADC framework. The association says, as of the end of last year, all sets sold should either have a digital tuner, or consumers need to be told otherwise.
The Department of Communications says it has a public awareness campaign in place to educate South Africans. Spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso says the campaign also has a consumer awareness element, which seeks to protect the public against misleading information about the process.
Rikhotso says the public will be educated to avoid the possibility of certain retailers misleading the public into believing that new sets are required to pick up digital signal, when a decoder will do the job.
According to the department's latest annual report, for the year to March 2010, the department aimed to have 60% of SA households “well-informed” about digital migration. However, this project was put on hold in March to determine whether it was effective, and determine the best and most cost-effective approach.
Rikhotso did not respond to queries about how far the public awareness campaign was, and when standards would be wrapped up so South Africans can buy TVs with digital tuners.
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