STB strategy forges ahead

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Cape Town, 31 Aug 2009

The court case between free-to-air broadcaster etv, against the Department of Communications (DOC), will not impact the development of the set-top box (STB) specifications, says Lara Kantor, chairperson of the Digital Dzonga.

Commercial broadcaster etv launched an urgent application earlier this month to stop the digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) roll-out, as it believed the regulations and processes were not correct. The High Court case is due to be heard on 15 September.

Kantor was commenting on replies by the DOC to questions put to it by a Democratic Alliance Western Cape politician TD Harris, who asked three questions concerning the STB manufacturing strategy, whether the boxes will have conditional access built into them, and how the subsidy system for consumers would work.

The DOC's replies to the questions say the implementation for the STB Manufacturing Sector Development Strategy was published in July and that the implementation-plan will be an appendix to the final STB strategy.

“It is envisaged that STBs will be available in the market during the first half of 2010,” the reply says.

The DOC says the DTTV system does not include a requirement for conditional access (the ability to turn off reception if licence fees are not paid), as this is not in the approved SA Bureau of Standards standard.

However, Kantor says etv and the SA Broadcasting Corporation had told the Digital Dzonga (the industry/government body established to oversee the country's migration to digital TV) that they were working to appoint a vendor to develop an STB control system.

“This system is important to ensure that South African subsidised boxes do not end up in other countries,” she says.

The DOC says it is envisaged that the scheme for ownership support (SOS) for STBs will be distributed through a consumer voucher system. The development of the SOS and its roll-out is at an advanced stage and will be made available to the public after Cabinet approval later this year.

The subsidy system is still being developed and it is envisaged that the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA would manage it. The subsidies are necessary to help the poorest sections of the population to purchase STBs, which are expected to cost around R700 each. Kantor says discussions about how this will happen are still ongoing.

“It is the DOC who are driving the subsidy system. However, the Digital Dzonga's view is that a commercial launch should still go ahead by the middle of next year, whether or not the subsidy scheme has been finalised,” she says.