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Sign up with GoogleSouth Africa will switch to digital TV by 2021
- Thread starter Jamie McKane
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- south africa
Swa
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The irony is they could have imported boxes with encryption for R200. Everybody could have accessed much better content but Singlechoice would have none of that.I hope the signal stays unencrypted - my no-name-brand DVB-T2 receiver/PVR/mediaplayer (R700) works just fine
Btw does anybody know what happened with this? Do the boxes have encryption?
MultiChoice and E-tv took this thing to the Constitutional Court, if memory serves.
The short of it is that MultiChoice was opposed to the idea of E-tv being given a leg up from government to enter the pay TV space, which encrypted STBs would allow.
(Part of the digital TV migration plan is that government must provided set-top boxes to indigent households for free, or at a substantially subsidised price.)
Digital TV battle – let’s cut the crap
The war of words between the Ministry of Communications and MultiChoice has become emotive and ridiculous. Let’s stop the nonsense and get back to the facts
mybroadband.co.za
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
No wrong about that. our choice of standard is the same as that of most intelligent countires. DVB-T2
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
You don't need STBs anymore. Just allow ALL TV manufacturers or better, simply instruct TV manufacturers to activate the DVB T2 tuners already present in all new digital TVs. Problem solved. Change the subsidy to one that will purchase a low end 32 " HD TV and the problem is gone. Write off all but the satellite STB.
Swa
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The submissions are public record. MC opposed the inclusion of encryption at every step.
Thanks for that I vaguely remember the case but don't know what became of it or if encryption was ultimately included.MultiChoice and E-tv took this thing to the Constitutional Court, if memory serves.
The short of it is that MultiChoice was opposed to the idea of E-tv being given a leg up from government to enter the pay TV space, which encrypted STBs would allow.
(Part of the digital TV migration plan is that government must provided set-top boxes to indigent households for free, or at a substantially subsidised price.)
Digital TV battle – let’s cut the crap
The war of words between the Ministry of Communications and MultiChoice has become emotive and ridiculous. Let’s stop the nonsense and get back to the facts
Swa
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Seems we are sitting with no encryption which is the last I remember
www.businesslive.co.za
Wonder who got theMC kickbacks.
Department confirms set-top boxes will not be encrypted
The communications minister’s policy position is at odds with her predecessor and the ANC’s policy position
www.businesslive.co.za
Wonder who got the
Lupus
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Reading that 6 to 7 year old article it seems they were opposed to it due to costs.MultiChoice and E-tv took this thing to the Constitutional Court, if memory serves.
The short of it is that MultiChoice was opposed to the idea of E-tv being given a leg up from government to enter the pay TV space, which encrypted STBs would allow.
(Part of the digital TV migration plan is that government must provided set-top boxes to indigent households for free, or at a substantially subsidised price.)
Digital TV battle – let’s cut the crap
The war of words between the Ministry of Communications and MultiChoice has become emotive and ridiculous. Let’s stop the nonsense and get back to the facts
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
Either way, encryption was and still is a bad idea for public broadcasting. Fine for pay-services.
What Jan said...plus
Yunus Carrim planned in 2013/14 a suitable solution by making the box encrypted but you can broadcast fta if you want. Anybody that wanted to use the box for encryption would have to pay. Nagravision, the encryption used, even slashed the price and make it a once-off cost.
Just when it looked i was solved Koos Bekker predicted that Carrim won't be Comms Minister for long, and then it happened...and Carrim was gone. Then Faith happened...with corruption rumours of Multichoice black payments...and the encryption was scrapped.
Then the R500 million Multichoice deal with Sabc happened, and sabc change their stance against encryption, which was rumoured to be part of the deal.
Then Multichoice give the local stb manucfacturers a deal to assemble dstv stbs, then those manufacturers stance changed...
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
And now those STB manufacturers are going bust one by one.
MC was "never" keen on just any old STB being used for their DTTV services, and was NOT prepared to go for Nagravision. They wanted those that use their services to have to get an MC STB. And use Iderto ........
They had and probably still have every intention to use encryption for their services
PS Two new MC decoder models are on the way into the market. So don't fall in love with the Exploras and the current HD decoders too much.
MC already had its own dvb-t2 box operating in rest of Africa at that time. Gov box was for fta and some of the new licensees, if they were interested.
Some of those MC dvb-t2 operations in some African countries are already closed, partly because of the rise of Startimes outside SA.
gerasmus
Well-Known Member
Digital switch would only be of relevance to the mind controlled 17,5 million government grant recipients. The rest of us are on Youtube, and other on demand streaming services.
Swa
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It was going to cost regardless. Various cost measures were put in place. Least cost would have been importing encrypted STBs from China. But MC was also interested in protecting the local industry with a proprietary standard that nobody else could replicate, the most expensive option. This would give MC an advantage over competitors.
But this is now irrelevant. SABC changed their view of supporting encryption as the deal with MC was concluded. The minister got replaced with a new one that opposed encryption and a poor draft nobody saw before replaced the final draft legislation overnight. Etv took this to court but lost against the ministry, MC and an SABC that was now on their side. MC claimed they are part of the group that would decide on the encryption issue but was never a broadcaster and only a pay-tv provider with their own proprietary STBs.
This whole thing is now largely irrelevant. We switched to DTT 10 years ago. In the time it took to conclude this fighting people have been migrating themselves. Openview has hundreds of thousands more subscribers. STBs are being used in Post Offices as doorstops. You can import your own from Aliexpress for under R300 and it doesn't even have to be SANS compliant and only support DBV-T2. Ironically this is the very argument MC made when it comes to non-enforcement.
All we need now is for the signal to be switched off everywhere so the spectrum can be freed.
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
The irony is DTT STBs were only ever intended as a temporary measure to speed up the deployment of DTT as an interface to analogue TVs.
Now, deploying them so late in the game is just prolonging the life of analogue TV technology in an environment where such Tvs are no longer easily available and are just about impossible to maintain anymore. The whole process now is a face-saving exercise to use a technology that is virtually dead anyway.
Just distribute them to those that have analogue TVs, allow those that want to buy a digital TV suitably equipped with the right tuner and dump the rest.
The govt writes off Billions trying to save SAA, but cringes when it needs to write off a few hundred million in useless STBs, that are not even good doorstops. ( too light).
In fact, they could just as well give anyone who asks for an STB one right now. Or just drive around and drop one off at every home, or simply give everyone with a SASSA card one. Problem gone in a month.
What the govt is inadvertently doing is dooming many poorer people to an inferior service with this late deployment. Just allow or instruct all importers and manufacturers of TVs to ensure that all digital TVs on sale in SA have DVB -T2 tuners activated. problem is gone in an instant. the market will drive the migration finality in a few months with no govt involvement whatsoever.