This is when each South African province's analogue TV signals will be switched off

Hanno Labuschagne

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This is when each South African province's analogue TV signals will be switched off

The Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies has announced that together with broadcasters, it has started with the phased switch-off of analogue television transmitters in the Free State.

This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement during the State of the Nation Address last month that the phased switch-off of analogue TV transmitters would begin this month.

The department said it is anticipated that this process, which will be done on a province-by-province basis, will be completed by the end of March 2022.
 
What I don't understand is why government still persists with the digital migration if millions of people are already using satellite TV. Just drive past squatter camps and you will see that about every shack already has a satellite dish up.

Even the broke SABC wants DSTV to collect the TV license moneys as DSTV already has over 7 million subscribers (read 7 million households). So why not just switch all of the f*&cking analogue transmitters off ?

Apart from DSTV, there is StarSAT and OpenviewHD. And now there is another Free-to-Air player also in the market. The is absolutely no need for the government decoders.

Or is it still an opportunity for ANC caders to milk the taxpayer for another couple of billion bucks ?
 
What I don't understand is why government still persists with the digital migration if millions of people are already using satellite TV. Just drive past squatter camps and you will see that about every shack already has a satellite dish up.

Even the broke SABC wants DSTV to collect the TV license moneys as DSTV already has over 7 million subscribers (read 7 million households). So why not just switch all of the f*&cking analogue transmitters off ?

Apart from DSTV, there is StarSAT and OpenviewHD. And now there is another Free-to-Air player also in the market. The is absolutely no need for the government decoders.

Or is it still an opportunity for ANC caders to milk the taxpayer for another couple of billion bucks ?
How?
 
What I don't understand is why government still persists with the digital migration if millions of people are already using satellite TV. Just drive past squatter camps and you will see that about every shack already has a satellite dish up.

Even the broke SABC wants DSTV to collect the TV license moneys as DSTV already has over 7 million subscribers (read 7 million households). So why not just switch all of the f*&cking analogue transmitters off ?

Apart from DSTV, there is StarSAT and OpenviewHD. And now there is another Free-to-Air player also in the market. The is absolutely no need for the government decoders.

Or is it still an opportunity for ANC caders to milk the taxpayer for another couple of billion bucks ?

You don't need a decoder to view DVB-T2 if you have a fairly modern TV. Even our 40" LG TV bought in 2014 has a digital tuner built in.
 
Awesome...does this mean that I am now officially exempt from paying my TV license since I don't want one of these useless boxes, don't have an aerial into the back of my TV, and don't have any form of satellite TV?
 
“As it is in the interest of the country that the broadcasting digital migration is completed to free up much-needed spectrum, we are redoubling our efforts to accelerate the project,” said Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams.
0 x 2 = 0

Someone should make a betting site that bets on how much the ANC is going to miss its target dates by. You could have a simple pool of "Will or Won't be done by date specified", and then for the more concerning gambler a "they will have it done X decades after they say it will be done". The closest person to that date wins the pool.

It might actually encourage the ANC to at the very least complete their project if they can bet on themselves. They can put down that the project will be completed 1 year early with 10 000 to 1 odds, and then it might push them to try make that deadline because they get a pile of cash back. Just need to find a way to verify the project is actually properly finished and not half-arsed and then announced it is finished.
 
What I don't understand is why government still persists with the digital migration if millions of people are already using satellite TV. Just drive past squatter camps and you will see that about every shack already has a satellite dish up.

Even the broke SABC wants DSTV to collect the TV license moneys as DSTV already has over 7 million subscribers (read 7 million households). So why not just switch all of the f*&cking analogue transmitters off ?

Apart from DSTV, there is StarSAT and OpenviewHD. And now there is another Free-to-Air player also in the market. The is absolutely no need for the government decoders.

Or is it still an opportunity for ANC caders to milk the taxpayer for another couple of billion bucks ?

Completely agree, been wondering this myself. Digital broadcasting is already an outdated technology. The rest of the world switched over almost a decade and a half ago and digital broadcasting is already being replaced by IP-based streaming.
 
Completely agree, been wondering this myself. Digital broadcasting is already an outdated technology. The rest of the world switched over almost a decade and a half ago and digital broadcasting is already being replaced by IP-based streaming.
Technically we did the same, switching to digital broadcasting 13 years ago back in 2008.

It's the analogue switch-off that hasn't occurred yet.
 
Why not just switch them all off now? Is there something someone really needs to watch in Gauteng in December? :unsure:
 
What I don't understand is why government still persists with the digital migration if millions of people are already using satellite TV. Just drive past squatter camps and you will see that about every shack already has a satellite dish up.

Even the broke SABC wants DSTV to collect the TV license moneys as DSTV already has over 7 million subscribers (read 7 million households). So why not just switch all of the f*&cking analogue transmitters off ?

Apart from DSTV, there is StarSAT and OpenviewHD. And now there is another Free-to-Air player also in the market. The is absolutely no need for the government decoders.

Or is it still an opportunity for ANC caders to milk the taxpayer for another couple of billion bucks ?
The real problem they should be focusing on is making sure electricity supplies are uninterrupted so that the pirated DSTV is not interrupted during the big match in informal settlements... [sic]
 
The real problem they should be focusing on is making sure electricity supplies are uninterrupted so that the pirated DSTV is not interrupted during the big match in informal settlements... [sic]
Nah, government is forgiven the outages because they get it free.
 
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