The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has announced its digital TV set-top boxes (STBs) will not have conditional access, saying this would put an extra burden on consumers as a control mechanism would drive up the cost of the decoders.
The SABC said in a statement today: "As a public service broadcaster, we have taken the decision not to support conditional access of STBs, as this is the most suitable option for us as a free-to-air broadcaster."
The decision, says the broadcaster, was based on the fact the SABC has a mandate to make its services available to all South African citizens, in line with universal access. "Our services, both television and radio, have always been on a free-to-air basis and going forward this will also be the case for digital terrestrial television (DTT).
"It is in the SABC's interest that any subscription DTT STB is capable of also receiving the SABC free-to-air channels. In this case, any DTT subscriber would not have to purchase an additional [decoder] in order to receive the SABC DTT channels."
The broadcaster says its decision was also strengthened by research through benchmarking with other public broadcasters across the world. "They do not have conditional access on their services either, which is a standard practice. It must be noted that conditional access is predominantly used by pay-TV operators."
The SABC says it is is ready to launch its DTT service, as the infrastructure, content and all other necessary resources are in place.
"The service will provide television channels SABC 1, 2, 3, as well as the 24-hour news channel, which is currently being broadcast on DStv, channel 404. The SABC will also launch an entertainment channel on the DTT platform."
SABC group CEO Lulama Mokhobo says the decision was not taken lightly. "All sides of the matter had to be carefully considered. However, at the end of the day, whatever we do as a public service broadcaster, we must ensure that it is in the interest of the public and we believe that having no conditional access will mean that no South African can ever be denied their right to access of broadcasting services in this country."
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