Broadcasting revolution is ‘too ambitious’
SA MAY not meet its ambitious targets for the switch to digital broadcasting, in spite of cabinet assurances that the plan will go ahead.
Although satellite services are already available in digital format, the digital migration policy means that even terrestrial TV stations — such as the SABC and e.tv — have to switch to a digital signal, in line with international standards.
Local TV viewers will have to buy set-top boxes to convert the analogue signal to digital, or buy digital TVs. The boxes will cost about R700 each, with government subsidising up to 70% of the cost for the poorest households, who will have to pass a means test.
The cabinet last week finally approved the plan to migrate broadcasting services from analogue to digital within three years, starting from November this year. It agreed that R2,5bn would be set aside for subsidising set-top boxes.
During the transition period, terrestrial TV (such as the SABC and e.tv) will be broadcast using both analogue and digital signals — a process known as dual illumination. In November 2011, however, the analogue signal will be switched off.
Communications department director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole told journalists yesterday: “We’ll do it by 2011. It’s a crime to even think about possibly not doing it by 2011.”
Digital media commentator Arthur Goldstuck says the target is over-optimistic.
The set-top boxes are critical to the success of the plan, because without their rollout, most households will not be able to watch television. The cabinet has agreed on specifications for the boxes, which will be manufactured locally. However, their production will depend to some extent on the industry’s transformation, as the government wants to support new players.
Goldstuck said the structure of the industry presented the first obstacle. Once that was resolved, prototypes which complied with the cabinet’s specifications and the South African Bureau of Standards regulations had to be produced.
Set-top boxes should be available to consumers from mid-2009, says Shope-Malofe, a target Goldstuck described as “optimistic”.
“We have two years for getting 7-million set-top boxes into the market, or migrate 7-million households, of which 4,5-million are the poorest of the poor.
“The poorest of the poor mainly live in rural and deep rural areas. To roll out that kind of technology in such a short space of time would require a feat of logistics this country has never seen,” he said.
The boxes, in essence a type of decoder, are expensive compared with the cheapest MultiChoice decoders, which sell for about R400. The interactive software and security features the boxes will include push the price up to R700.
Countries such as the US and Britain are aiming for a seven year migration period.
At a briefing last week, Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said the shorter roll-out period was because of the cost of dual illumination.
It is expensive because the programming is broadcast twice, once in each format.
Digital broadcasting discussion
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