The DA has called on Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe to get Cabinet to reverse the Broadcast Digital Migration policy it passed in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is critical to break the legal logjam that is crippling South Africa\u2019s migration to digital broadcasting,\u201d said the DA.<\/p>\n
On 17 June 2015 the International Telecommunications Union will stop protecting analogue broadcasting signals from interference from broadcasters that have migrated to digital broadcasting.<\/p>\n
South Africa is listed on the ITU website<\/strong><\/a> as one of the countries that have either not started their digital migration process or whose status in the process is unknown.<\/p>\n Neighbouring Mozambique has transitioned. Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and Lesotho are progressing with a phased approach, said the DA.<\/p>\n There have been reports about political interference and incompetence that led to South Africa\u2019s retarded Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) process.<\/p>\n The latest legal challenge to the policy\u00a0focuses on the lack of encryption capability for government-subsidised set top boxes (STBs) that are to be locally produced and sold to South Africa\u2019s poorest households at a reduced price.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is widely believed in the electronics manufacturing and broadcasting sector that the policy, whose most recent controversial amendment was done without public participation, was written to favour pre-selected STB suppliers and the effective duopoly of SABC and MultiChoice,\u201d the DA said.<\/p>\n This resulted in a legal challenge by E-tv, which believes a lack of encryption capabilities jeopardises its financial sustainability. E-tv\u2019s court action is delaying the assembly and sale of SABS-standard STBs to South Africans with analogue TV sets.<\/p>\n The DA called on Cabinet to recognise its error and to reverse it so South Africa can fast-track the DTT process.<\/p>\n Among the benefits of switching to digital broadcasting is that frequency spectrum called the \u201cdigital dividend\u201d will be freed, and can be used to roll out high-speed wireless broadband networks – such as those based on LTE technology.<\/p>\n MultiChoice digital TV hijacking allegation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SABC to have only 5 digital TV channels<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n E-tv takes minister to court over digital TV<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Digital TV R4.3-billion tender winner is\u2026 20 companies?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nMore digital TV news<\/h3>\n