Digital TV migration may be delayed
It appears as though South Africa’s switch to full digital terrestrial television, a process which started in 2006, may be delayed due to slow infrastructure rollout and a delay in the issuance of a final broadcast frequency plan by ICASA.
At the launch of the Department of Communications (DoC) advisory board for the Digital Television migration (also known as the Digital Dzonga) in July, officials revealed that by April 2010 local television owners would be able to access public broadcast services in either analogue or digital format. This is referred to as a dual illumination period, whereby broadcasters would be required to distribute signal in both digital and analogue formats.
Lara Kantor, Chairperson of the Digital Dzonga, has revealed that the “council has advised the [Communications] Minister that due to certain outstanding matters, including outstanding regulatory issues, this date may not be met” adding that “in that case its likely it will be later in 2010”.
In addition Sentech, the company responsible for implementing the required infrastructure to achieve full digital broadcast across South Africa, revealed in November that it is falling behind its targets for digital television roll out.
After the initial digital switch on in November 2008, which allowed for trials to begin taking place, the company commented that it had planned to have a 40% Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) population coverage by 31 March 2009. As of the 30th of October the company had only been able to achieve 33% of national coverage due to delays in the finalisation of a frequency plan and DTT migration regulations.
“Sentech had a shortfall, and was under-funded. It had had to add two additional phases. The delay threatened the November 2011 target for switching-off analogue transmissions, but if funding became available, Sentech would make every effort to meet it,” explained Beverley Ngwenya, Chief Operations Officer at Sentech recently.
Sentech is now in its fourth phase of its DTT rollout, which commenced on the 1st of April 2009 and will continue until 31 March 2010. The company’s objective is to achieve 63.3% population coverage within this timeframe.
Additional channels
One of the primary benefits of digital television is spectral efficiency. The SABC has estimated that a digital multiplex using the same bandwidth as a single analogue channel can carry up to eight digital video channels.
In July Kantor commented that the public broadcaster would potentially carry additional channels for local viewers. Although no further details are yet available regarding which channels will be offered Kantor confirmed that “some additional channels are already being broadcast on the DTT trial.”
Upon switch over users will also be able to access electronic program guides on all set top boxes.
Set top boxes
Currently no televisions on the South African market feature a digital tuner; these are instead set up to receive an analogue broadcast signal. For this reason the users must purchase a set top box to access the digital signal.
Kantor confirmed that the DoC is currently targeting a price of R750 for each set top box. According to Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda R400-million has been set aside to subsidise these devices for roughly 5-million poor households. This may result in a set top box fee of roughly R300 says Kantor.
With the final switchover date of 11 November 2011 crawling ever closer it seems increasingly unlikely that the parties involved in this effort will achieve full national coverage in the forecasted time.
Digital TV delay – discussion
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