Free-to-air broadcaster etv says the Department of Communications' decision to appeal a South Gauteng High Court judgement will cause additional digital TV delays, a sentiment with which the official opposition concurs.
Yesterday, the department said it would appeal the ruling, which found the DOC had erred in selecting Sentech to handle conditional access controls on set-top boxes (STB). The controls are meant to ensure boxes stolen in SA cannot be used.
SA was meant to finally turn on digital TV last month, but etv's court bid to have broadcasters, and not Sentech, handle the conditional access system meant the department could not issue tenders to manufacture about five million subsidised boxes, and could not go live nationwide.
The free-to-air broadcaster says, while it had not received formal notification by yesterday afternoon that the department would apply for permission to appeal, minister Dina Pule "has the right to use the judicial processes available to her".
Defending rights
However, it says that, should this action be taken, this will only cause further delays in the commercial launch of digital television. Etv points out that the court said Pule "overstepped her authority by appointing Sentech".
The broadcaster will defend its rights to ensure free-to-air broadcasters are responsible for the STB control system for free-to-air digital terrestrial television, it adds.
Marian Shinn, the Democratic Alliance's shadow minister of communications, says the appeal is "regrettable" and "will further delay progress towards SA's migration to digital terrestrial television".
Digital delay
SA aimed to turn off analogue by the end of this year, but has since conceded this is impractical. Instead, it aims to meet the International Telecommunication Union's mid-2015 deadline, which is when analogue signal will no longer be protected.
"Should the appeal take about a year to settle, it will take many more months before the successful STB manufacturers are chosen and able to start planning for production. It will then take another six to nine months before the STBs are ready to retail," says Shinn.
"This means the majority of South Africans are unlikely to have STBs to enable them to watch high-quality digital television before the country is obliged to switch off its analogue broadcasting signals."
Still talking
The DOC's deputy DG of ICT policy development, Themba Phiri, told ITWeb yesterday that the department took the decision to file an application for leave to appeal, but is still seeking a middle path that would avoid further litigation.
Phiri explained that the South Gauteng High Court's decision complicates matters, because the department had not envisaged such a situation in the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy. He explains the broadcasters may need to appoint an STB officer, and no provision has been made for such a role.
In addition, said Phiri, the state was initially set to pay about R131 million for controls, but this may now fall away if the broadcasters handle the issue.
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