SA to miss digital TV deadline

Within the next few days, minister of communications Roy Padayachie is finally expected to announce whether the country will stick to its original decision to use the European DVB-T standard to migrate to digital broadcasting.

His announcement will come more than four years after SA first started down the road towards switching over to digital TV, using the European DVB-T standard - a process that stalled earlier this year by former communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda.

It will also come at a time when the country is winding down for the festive season, so industry will not be able to start with preparations for the switchover before the start of next year.

In real terms, government's back-and-forth on the digital standard - which came on top of an already-slow start to the migration process, despite government's aggressive self-imposed deadlines - has seen the country waste four years and hundreds of millions of rands.

With dual-illumination set to start in November next year, SA will have less than a year to set itself up for digital switch-on, a task that is virtually impossible.

More than two weeks have passed by since communication ministers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) elected to use DVB-T2 as the digital standard for migration from analogue broadcasting. The region set November 2013 as a deadline to turn off the old format signal.

However, government has still seemingly not developed a sense of urgency around the process, as SA has yet to officially announce whether it will follow the SADC decision, or use the escape clause in last month's announcement. This allows for any other standard, as long as it complies with stipulations included in a 2006 agreement signed in Geneva (GE06) under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko says Padayachie is set to make an announcement in the “next few days”. He says the issue was discussed at the last Cabinet meeting of the year, held last Wednesday, but left in Padayachie's hands.

Five years ago, government set up the Digital Migration Working Group, which made its recommendations to the then communication minister, the late Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, in 2006. That year, Cabinet elected to implement digital TV based on the widely-used European DVB-T standard.

In anticipation of moving to digital TV, Sentech started rolling out transmitters and, so far, has about 30% of SA covered, aiming to reach 60% by March. Initially, the state-owned enterprise was expected to have covered 80% of SA by this year, with full coverage promised by the department in time for switch off.

Set-top box (STB) manufacturers also geared up in anticipation of the need to manufacture at least 10 million decoders for the local market. The boxes are required to convert the digital signal for viewing on older, analogue television sets.

Government set aside R2.45 billion to subsidise set-top boxes so that the poorest of the poor could receive the new signal.

However, the entire process stalled earlier this year, when the Department of Communications, under Nyanda, announced that it was reconsidering the 2006 Cabinet approved decision to use DVB-T standard.

The department elected to investigate the use of the Brazilian upgrade of the obscure Japanese ISDB-T standard - a move that angered industry, which is estimated to have spent at least R700 million gearing up for switchover.

Government's decision to relook at its initial decision put several smaller manufacturers in jeopardy and Altech CEO Craig Venter threatened to sue government if it implemented ISDB-T.

SA is expected to ultimately implement DVB-T, the forerunner to the chosen standard, after deputy communications minister Obed Bapela let the cat out of the bag last month, when he said: “SA's position is to reaffirm Cabinet's original commitment to the European (DVB-T) standard.”

Bertus Bresler, who heads up Reunert's STB project, says the department needs to urgently announce which standard the country will use. Bresler explains much still needs to be completed before SA can launch digital TV, and the date is now looking like it could be pushed out to 2012.

There are several issues that still need to be wrapped up before production can start, such as the issue of STB control, which still needs to be finalised.

Set-top box controls need to be decided upon by broadcasters. The control is designed to prevent locally-produced boxes working outside of SA if they have been stolen.

In addition, once the green light has been given on the production line, government's scheme for ownership support strategy to get subsidised boxes to those who need them, needs to be wrapped up soon. Cabinet has earmarked about R2.45 billion to subsidise boxes for the poorest households in SA.

Bresler points out that the SADC deadline is a tight timeframe. “We need strong leadership from government to achieve these optimistic timelines.”

Reunert is already working on other DVB-T2 opportunities in the rest of Africa off the back of the SADC decision, and its DVB-T2 set-top box will be ready to go to market early next year, says Bresler.

However, plants will be shutting down soon, which will mean that production lines will remain stationary even if a decision is announced in the next few days. Reunert's RC&C Manufacturing Company will shut down for about two weeks over December.

Bresler says the company has no plans to manufacture set-top boxes for SA until a clear digital migration plan is put on the table.

RC&C was appointed by the SABC in 2008 as the primary supplier of locally designed and manufactured decoders for the DVB-T trials. It is based in Cape Town and manufactures more than a million electronics and related products a year.

Steven Ambrose, MD of WWW Strategy, argues SA will miss the 2013 deadline. He says a more realistic timeframe is to turn on analogue TV at the end of next year, and use the next two years to deliver the new signal. “We definitely aren't going to make the deadline.”

Ambrose says even if Padayachie makes an announcement now, the news will make very little difference to set-top box manufacturers' ability to deliver. However, adds Ambrose, government should have provided industry with clarity just after the SADC announcement.

The uncertainty is not good, says Ambrose, and makes government look like there is something suspicious going on when this is probably not the case. “It doesn't make any sense that there isn't already any clarity.”