SABC signal switch-off panic
Experts have warned that switching off the country’s analogue TV broadcasts too soon could spell disaster for free-to-air broadcasters like the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
However, the public broadcaster has been quiet about how the 31 December 2024 deadline will impact its audience numbers and financial turnaround plan. It previously said it would have a devastating effect on its audience.
The SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition recently warned that switching off analogue TV signals at the end of the year could significantly decrease the SABC’s audience numbers.
SOS Coalition national coordinator Uyanda Siyotula noted that the SABC lost around 40% of its viewers after analogue TV signals were switched off in five of the country’s provinces.
“If we’re looking at the big provinces, it’s going to lose more than 60%,” she said.
Siyotula added that the switch-off will further pressure the public broadcaster, who is already facing a dire financial situation.
Following the SOS Coalition’s warning, MyBroadband asked the SABC about its thoughts on the analogue TV switch-off deadline and how it would impact its turnaround plan, but it hadn’t answered our questions by publication.
Complicating matters, state signal distributor Sentech recently threatened to cut off the SABC’s signal for non-payment.
Communications minister Solly Malatsi said he brokered a deal that would allow the SABC to continue broadcasting while a permanent solution to its Sentech debt is found.
However, it appears to be looking for ways to mitigate the impact of the analogue switch-off on its audience numbers.
In early August 2024, the public broadcaster published a tender for someone to build it a satellite TV service.
“The SABC wants to mitigate the devastating effect on our audiences of the analogue switch-off on 31 December 2024,” it stated.
However, the contracted party would have to use its own capital to build the platform.
Siyotula said the rapidly approaching switch-off date will cause problems for community and other free-to-air broadcasters.
“It’s not only going to affect SABC, it’s going to affect community broadcasters, it’s going to affect E-TV, and it’s going to affect the free-to-air industry at large,” she said.
While the SOS Coalition supports the broadcast digital migration project in South Africa, it doesn’t support the government’s approach.
It claims the deadline will leave more than four million South Africans without access to critical information.
“We see that as an infringement to the right to access to access information, as well as infringement for the right of freedom of expression,” said Siyotula.
“Otherwise, we really want this digital transformation, but we want it to be done in a proper way that includes everyone and leaves no one behind.”
Analogue switch-off deadline uncertainty
The 31 December 2024 deadline is still uncertain, but communications minister Solly Malatsi recently assured that he would make a decision on the final date long before the end of December this year.
“One thing I will not do is to leave the pronouncement on that decision very late and very close to that deadline because it just creates unhealthy and unnecessary anxiety in the sector,” the minister told MyBroadband in an interview.
Malatsi explained that switching off the transmissions could leave many South African households without access to TV, which would negatively impact E-tv and the SABC.
“There is a very genuine concern about the approximately 400,000 households that are still on analogue and whether we can migrate them to digital before December,” he said.
“I have a responsibility to ensure that we don’t leave South Africans behind.”
This involves verifying that these households have access to a decoder-like set-top box, which enables older TV sets to receive the new digital TV signal.
Malatsi said his department’s decisions must be in the country’s best interest. He added that he is currently in discussions with the SABC and eMedia — the broadcasters likely to be hit hardest.
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