South Africans are going to have to fork out at least another R250 million to continue watching television after SA switches off analogue broadcast, as about half the population will need new aerials.
However, exactly who will need new antennas has yet to be clarified. It is also uncertain as to whether government will subsidise aerials for the poorest of the poor, who will suddenly find that bunny ears will no longer work when analogue is turned off.
South Africa has been moving towards digital migration for about 10 years. However, the process has taken some time and the previous deadline of switching off analogue by this November has been pushed out.
Local broadcasters will turn on digital television next April in preparation for a commercial launch next September, as part of government's plan to turn off the outdated analogue signal by the end of 2013.
In order to keep watching television, South Africans need to either buy digital televisions with built-in tuners, or set-top boxes to convert the signal so it can be viewed on older sets.
Cabinet has set aside about R2.45 billion to subsidise set-top boxes. The subsidy, which will go to the poorest of the poor, will cover about 70% of the cost of a decoder, estimated at about R700. Government will subsidise about five million households.
In addition, about 50% of the around 10 million households are expected to need new aerials to pick up the signal. However, there is no clarity as to what sort of antennae is required.
Complicated issue
In 2006, the process of moving to digital television was expected to cost R4.2 billion over three years.
Addressing a recent communication Parliamentary portfolio committee meeting, Democratic Alliance deputy shadow minister of communications Niekie van den Berg asked what would happen to the antennas that people were currently using and whether they would have to be replaced.
The department's chief director of radio and satellite, Linden Petzer, responded that, in many areas users would have to use new antennae as frequencies had changed to accommodate digital television.
The ideal situation would be to do away with receiving-antennas entirely, said Petzer. However, this is not possible as the Sentech network was designed for analogue television and was not dense enough for signal to provide coverage for use of indoor antennas only, he explained.
Petzer added that moving to indoor aerials only would require more transmitters to be built, which would not be possible to meet the time frame of turning off analogue by the end of 2013.
Antennas are a complex issue, which would be dealt with in more detail the following day by Sentech, said Petzer. However, the issue was not raised the following day, and Sentech says it cannot comment on how many households will have to fork out for new aerials.
Petzer added that the spectrum issues had been finalised and ICASA issued a national frequency plan based on the International Telecommunication Union's 2006 digital agreement, which covers frequencies in Africa. The plan was finalised in 2009 and sets out what frequencies will be used where for digital television.
Added cost
However, Ellies CEO Wayne Samson guesstimates that around five million households will need to replace their existing internal or external antennas. Ellies manufactures, wholesales and distributes electronic products related to television reception, and has about 70% of the market.
New aerials will cost between R50 and R250, says Samson. “There's going to be a lot of antennas to be changed.”
Most bunny ears will need replacing, because the digital signal will operate in a narrow band, notes Samson. He explains there is no “ghosting” with digital broadcast as there either is a clear picture, or nothing at all.
Portable aerials will also need a power source, adds Samson. Ellies has tested new antennas on DVB-T2 and is ready to go to market when digital TV is turned on in April, he comments.
Who knew?
Parliamentary committee members, during the session at which the question of antennas was raised, indicated there was a general lack of public awareness about the process of moving off analogue broadcast.
Samson says there will have to be an extensive educational drive to inform people about migration, because many households will suddenly find that their aerials will not work.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says there is a lack of awareness around the fact that millions of households will need to replace aerials. He had always assumed it would be built into set-top boxes. “It would be a massive hidden cost if it's not built in.”
Goldstuck says the issue of aerials is “the giraffe in the corner of the room that no one is noticing”. He says the lack of clarity around which antennae needs replacing is “just another example of how badly migration was thought through in the beginning”.
Most of the poor households that will benefit from government's subsidy scheme simply cannot afford to replace their aerials, says Goldstuck. According to Statistics SA, about 25.7% of SA's working population are unemployed.
The Universal Service and Access Agency of SA will manage the subsidies for the set-top boxes, but did not immediately respond to a query as to whether it will also provide assistance for people to buy aerials.
The Department of Communications also did not respond to this query, and did not indicate how many households will have to carry this additional expense.
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