SA must migrate to digital television by the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU's) June 2015 deadline, because the country is a signatory to the pact, communications minister Dina Pule said this morning.
Pule, speaking at a business breakfast this morning, said SA would launch digital television in the third quarter of this year. She said migration was “non-negotiable” as SA does not have a choice but to meet the ITU's deadline.
SA is moving to digital television using the upgraded European DVB-T2 standard and initially aimed to turn digital signal on in April. Earlier this year, the deadline was pushed out to the third quarter to allow set-top box manufacturers time to produce the decoders needed to convert the signal for viewing on older televisions.
Pule said Sentech has already covered 60% of the population with digital signal and the department will launch an awareness campaign on migration tomorrow.
Government has also set aside R2.5 billion to subsidise decoders for poor households, Pule said. She noted the state would pay up to 70% of the anticipated R700 cost for about five million households.
Digital migration is also expected to facilitate the entry of about 1 000 small and medium companies into the electronics manufacturing sector, said Pule. These companies would either compete with, or complement existing decoder producers, she added.
Pule noted that migration would create about 23 500 jobs in the set-top box supply chain, which would aid the department in meeting its one million employment opportunities by its 2020 goal.
Cabinet has approved a manufacturing strategy, she added. The strategy aims to use migration as a catalyst for an electronics sector in SA and aid emerging manufacturers.
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