It will be impossible to provide high-definition television if etv is not given more access to the prescribed multiplex, says the free-to-air broadcaster.
A multiplex is essentially the frequency TV shows are broadcast in; and for digital more than one TV channel can be broadcast over the same multiplex.
Under draft regulations, which are expected to govern the migration from analogue TV to digital TV, etv has been allocated no more than 60% of multiplex two, which the company says is only enough to provide one HD channel to the masses.
According to Zubair Munshi, etv's group executive for business development and strategy, the bandwidth available under the current allocation will only allow the company to produce a single HD channel, which he says is not enough of an incentive for consumers to switch to digital.
Government, the broadcasters and the regulator face tight deadlines when it comes to the switch from analogue to digital. Government is targeting the end of 2011 for the migration to be completed, while the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) has a more realistic conversion deadline of March 2012.
During that time, broadcasters will run TV in both analogue and digital and digital signals, as well as try to persuade consumers to transfer from normal TV reception to buying a digital decoder, which will be required to view digital TV.
The local council overseeing the migration, the Digital Dzonga, will assist the broadcasters to market the new service. However, Munshi says persuading consumers to switch over for one HD channel is not a feasible incentive.
The International Telecommunication Union has prescribed that Europe, the Middle East and Africa should be fully converted to digital by 2015.
More for less
A standard multiplex has the available bandwidth of roughly 24Mbps, which can be used to broadcast either standard or high-definition channels. The allocation prescribed to etv by ICASA essentially cuts the available bandwidth to 14.4Mbps.
Munshi says a standard channel requires 2.5Mbps to be broadcast with any decent quality and high-definition needs three to four times the bandwidth to broadcast with quality. Using Munshi's numbers, etv would then either be able to broadcast five standard definition channels and an electronic TV guide, or one HD channel and two standard channels with a guide.
Etv's numbers do correlate with international standards; however, it is also reliant on the encoding method that the broadcasters use. The current standard is to use the MPEG2 codec; however, the regulator has prescribed MPEG4, which affords the broadcasters a higher compression ratio. MPEG4 essentially means broadcasters will be able to plunge more channels into the space they are given.
Submissions to the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom has seen similar claims to etv's, with one broadcaster suggesting one of the six available multiplexes in the UK should be used solely for three high-definition channels.
SA may well have three available multiplexes when the migration from analogue to digital gets to the consumer's doorstep. The draft regulations give the first multiplex in its entirety to the SABC, which has three standard definition channels it has to digitise.
The third multiplex will be given to pay-TV provider MNet, but only if the company switches from analogue to digital without a trial period. The regulations allow the company to perform the “hard-switchover” 90 days after the regulations come into effect.
Not top priority
The regulator's current set of draft regulations indicate that high-definition TV will not be a top priority until after the analogue switch-off. Etv's priority is to future-proof its offerings and it is concerned it will not be able to fulfil its future plans.
ICASA may not be too concerned about etv's plight, since the company derailed the initial iteration of the regulations, forcing another round of public hearings and putting a clamp on the migration timelines.
The company's access to the multiplex is also presented by ICASA as a digital migration incentive. Essentially, all the broadcasters currently showing TV shows over analogue must convert those channels to digital. All access over and above the initial channel has been considered an incentive to migrate.
ICASA acting chairman Robert Nkuna says the company has been given the 60% access, more than MNet, because it has met and indeed overshot, local content obligations. Local content is often more expensive than international content and sometimes attracts less advertising.
He is concerned there simply is not enough space to allocate more to any of the broadcasters or potential competitors until the digital dividend becomes available. The digital dividend is the spectrum that will become available when the current broadcasters migrate to digital.
Try again later
The regulations are not completely dismissive of the possibility of HD, which has given etv the opportunity to bid for more capacity on the multiplex, once the analogue signal is killed.
However, etv will have some competition when it comes to the additional capacity on the multiplex, with the likes of Avusa and Kagiso Media looking to gain access to the digital TV market.
Smaller players are being kept off the playing field until the migration has been completed, which could leave many possible broadcast competitors in a tough position to crack another incumbent-dominated market.
Newly-licensed Super5Media has also requested it be given access during the migration period, so that it has a fighting chance to compete against the likes of MNet and etv.
Nkuna did not indicate whether the regulator would consider including the newly-licensed operators or provide more capacity to etv.
Public hearings on the draft regulations will conclude today.
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