One of the Department of Communications' (DOC's) top priorities this year is to speed up the move of terrestrial broadcasting from an analogue system to a digital regime, which will free up much-needed frequency.
The department has set itself a 1 April target to turn on digital television - the biggest move in the terrestrial space since the advent of the service in the 1970s. It still aims to turn analogue broadcast off in the middle of next year, in line with the International Telecommunication Union's cessation of protection for analogue television.
In National Treasury's Estimates of National Expenditure document, revealed during the budget 2014 address this afternoon, it indicates the DOC's spending focus over the next three years will be to prepare the broadcasting digital migration call centre, implement the broadcasting digital migration awareness campaign on digital terrestrial television, and expedite the rollout of infrastructure for digital terrestrial television by providing a subsidy scheme for set-top boxes.
As a result, the bulk of the department's budget over the medium-term is allocated to the infrastructure support programme, which accounts for 43.6% of total expenditure over the next three years.
In total, R852 million was allocated for digital television infrastructure last year, a figure that drops to R458 million this year, before growing to R697 million next year and R732 million in 2016/17.
A treasury official, who cannot be named due to its policy, explains the allocations were made over a three-year period due to government's spending ceiling and not because the state anticipates missing the 2015 deadline. He says the amounts may be shifted if savings are found to offset the moves.
Switching off
Among the DOC's targets are to allocate 676 000 subsidised digital set-top boxes to end-users by next March and also switch off 63 analogue transmitter sites.
Some R265 million over the medium-term has been allocated for the broadcasting digital migration project. Of this, R195.1 million will go to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for the digital library and a digital playout centre.
Sentech is allocated R69.8 million in 2014/15 to wrap up the rollout of digital terrestrial television infrastructure. Sentech has covered about 96% of the population with terrestrial signal.
Government has set aside around R2.3 billion to subsidise set-top boxes for around five million homes. The final subsidy amount will cover 70% of the cost of the decoder, as well as an aerial, although the state's tender for these boxes has yet to be awarded.
In 2016/17, digital television is expected to cost the SABC R1.5 billion in operational expenditure, a number that leaps from R130 million this year. However, its revenue will grow from R7.3 billion in 2013/14 to R8.4 billion in 2016/17, thanks to the increase in advertising revenue in line with the new multichannel environment created by the expected rollout of digital terrestrial television.
Share