Broadcaster Etv has reportedly approached the Constitutional Court to challenge the recent High Court ruling that analogue signal must be switched off by 30 June.
Last month, the Pretoria High Court ruled the analogue switch-off be postponed to end-June.
Now TechCentral reports that the broadcaster has approached the Constitutional Court on an urgent basis to appeal the High Court judgement.
Communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni had already welcomed the High Court ruling, saying she was elated the applications of Etv and the intervening parties had been dismissed with costs.
She urged Etv to “accept the ruling of the court and desist from further attempts to derail the process of digital migration, which will release the much-anticipated high-demand frequency spectrum”.
Telecoms regulator the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa had also lauded the ruling, saying it brought certainty and conclusiveness with regards to digital migration in South Africa.
If Etv’s latest application at the Constitutional Court is successful, this will result in SA further delaying the digital migration process.
After missing the International Telecommunication Union-mandated June 2015 migration deadline, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has made numerous attempts to conclude the digital migration process, in order to make available the sub-1GB (800MHz-700MHz) spectrum that’s occupied by analogue TV signals.
Today ITWeb reported that the communications ministry will ensure the over 500 000 households that registered for set-top boxes (STBs) timeously will receive the devices and be connected by no later than the revised analogue switch-off deadline.
Ntshavheni’s department planned to shut down the country’s analogue TV signals, which would mark an end to dual-illumination in SA, on 31 March.
However, the decision was legally challenged by free-to-air broadcaster Etv, joined by community TV channels as well as the civil society campaign #SaveFreeTV.
Etv argued the move to switch-off analogue TV signals at the end of March will kill the businesses of free-to-air broadcasters.
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