Digital TV never promised
THE communications department has clarified the technology commitments it made to help SA host the 2010 World Cup, saying it never promised that local viewers would enjoy watching the games in a much sharper digital format.
It would not be breaking any guarantees if local viewers were still not hooked up to the high definition television (HDTV) format by 2010, the department’s spokesman Joe Makhafola said yesterday. The department was responding after Gartner analyst Will Hahn said SA had an obligation to broadcast the games in HDTV format, but warned that most local viewers would miss out.
Broadcasting to local viewers in HDTV was not part of the core 2010 guarantees to Fifa, Makhafola said, as its commitment was to provide infrastructure for the international transmission of HDTV, not to ensure that local viewers benefited.
But even if local consumers were not enjoying terrestrial digital broadcasts by 2010 they could still access the newer technology by subscribing to satellite services, he said.
The likelihood of local viewers watching digital TV by 2010 faded after delays in drawing up policies for the switch-over from analogue signals. One delay was in defining the standards for set top boxes to convert the signals for viewing on existing TV sets.
The boxes will cost about R700 each, after the price was hiked by about R400 owing to a decision to enable the boxes to receive e-government services.
The Democratic Alliance has criticised that move, with its MP Dene Smuts saying people did not want to go home to access government services, they just wanted a wider choice of television channels.
Makhafola has also denied the Gartner analyst’s warning that companies near a football stadium may as well close during the matches, as there would not be enough bandwidth to make calls or download data once spectators were sending text messages or transmitting videos of match highlights over their cellphones to their friends.
Bandwidth capacity around the stadia would be based on specifications provided by Fifa.
The department had guaranteed to provide fibreoptic cable links from all the stadia to the broadcasting centre in Johannesburg, backed up by secondary fibre optic cables and with satellite links as a third failsafe. It had also promised to provide “adequate” connectivity on submarine cables and to provide international connectivity via satellites.
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