Broadcasting4.02.2025

TV signal disaster in South Africa

Management at South African signal distributor Sentech’s offices in KwaZulu-Natal don’t agree with the current approach to the analogue switch-off, saying government shouldn’t measure progress based on installing set-top boxes.

Instead, it proposes that the government ensure communities have access to the required equipment through the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), for example, before switching off analogue TV signals.

Alternatively, it proposes doing the reverse and switching off analogue TV signals before ensuring all communities can access the required set-top boxes.

This is according to Portfolio Committee Member for Communications and Digital Technologies, S’bongiseni Vilakazi, who conducted oversight visits to the KwaZulu-Natal offices of state-owned companies under the communication department.

Management at Sentech’s offices in Durban said measuring the progress of the broadband digital migration project through set-top boxes is slowing things down.

“They favour two options: empower communities and switch off or switch off and enforce empowerment,” Vilakazi wrote in his report.

“The SABC can play a stronger role than leaving everything in government’s hands.”

He also highlighted a significant challenge Sentech is facing regarding the broadcast digital migration project.

Not only is dual illumination — the phrase for running both analogue and DTT broadcast signals — expensive, but it also requires old or obsolete equipment, for many of which there aren’t parts available.

Moreover, the signal distributor is losing those skilled in analogue TV technology to retirement or other reasons, and they aren’t being replaced.

The costs of dual illumination are adding up. However, broadcaster eMedia says it wouldn’t consider contributing to these costs.

In a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies in November 2024, it was revealed that dual illumination had cost South Africa R1.23 billion over the past 10 financial years.

“The department and USAASA requested National Treasury to approve a reprioritisation of R140 million from USAF funds to cover the dual illumination shortfall for 2024/25,” the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies said in its presentation.

eMedia told MyBroadband that the government has always been responsible for dual illumination costs, not broadcasters.

This is despite it and other free-to-air broadcasters fighting for the government to scrap the tentative analogue TV switch-off deadline: 31 December 2024.

The broadcasters argue that switching off analogue TV signals prematurely will cause them to lose audience numbers, which, in turn, will hurt their bottom line.

This is because a fairly large number of households in the country have yet to receive set-top boxes, which are required to receive digital TV signals. Without these, viewers won’t be able to watch once analogue signals are shut down.

The SABC, which is also at risk of losing a large portion of its audience, recently requested a deadline extension until the end of 2025, and while eMedia agrees that it should be moved, it believes 12 months won’t be enough.

“We do not think even 12 months is sufficient to migrate the remaining analogue households,” it told MyBroadband.

South Africa plans to switch off 195 analogue transmitters by the deadline, of which it has already deactivated 21.

According to the DCDT, roughly 469,000 households had yet to receive their set-top boxes as of November 2024.

It highlighted that it faces the challenge of tracking down households with missing details or incomplete addresses.

“Data integrity issues have negatively impacted the rate of decoder installations towards achieving a minimum of the 90% threshold needed to secure authorisation from broadcasters,” it said.

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