The Department of Communication suprised industry recently by announcing that they were reconsidering the standard for digital terrestrial television (DTT) in South Africa. According to M-Net CEO, Patricia Scholtemeyer, this comes after ” the standard was approved by Cabinet, implemented in policy and confirmed in regulation.”<\/p>\n
In a combined press briefing held yesterday, M-Net and e.tv outlined why they believe changing South Africa’s DTT standard to Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting – Terrestrial (ISDB-T) will end up costing the end user.<\/p>\n
Karen Willenberg, M-Net’s Director of Regulatory and Legal Affairs, presented the process that led to Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T) being chosen as the South African DTT standard, as well as providing counter-arguments to the claims being made about DVB-T.<\/p>\n
Willenberg said that the Digital Broadcasting Advisory Body (DBAB), which was appointed by the Minister in 2002, rejected ISDB because of a number of factors. Among them were that it only operates in 6MHz environments, whereas South Africa uses 8MHz, and the cost of set top boxes (STBs) was too high.<\/p>\n
She went on to mention that the Digital Migration Working Group investigated the available standards (ATSC, ISDB, DVB) again in 2006 and found DVB to be the most suitable.<\/p>\n
Lara Kantor, Group Executive for Regulatory Strategy at e.tv said that R250 million had already been invested in DVB-T and that ISDB-T set top boxes cost about double that of DVB-T STBs.<\/p>\n
Dave Hagen, Technical Director of DTT at M-Net added that there is no ISDB equipment that currently works at 8Mhz either. This means that ISDB-T STBs would have to be developed specifically for South Africa.<\/p>\n
Hagen priced ISDB-T STBs that run on 6MHz networks between $150 and $180 (US) at retail, whereas DVB-T STBs retails for about $90. Due to the higher set top box price, he stated that an additional subsidy from government to the tune of R2.2 billion would be required.<\/p>\n
Representatives from the two companies also highlighted that in addition to STBs, no ISDB-T transmission equipment exists that operates at 8MHz. They indicated that it would also have to be developed specially for South Africa if the switch to ISDB is made.<\/p>\n
Outside of the monetary cost, much was said about the cost in time a change in standards at this late stage would cause.<\/p>\n
“If everything were resolved tomorrow we’d be able to launch in 9 months or so,” Kantor said.<\/p>\n
According to Kantor, going through the relevant processes (including ITU, SABS and ICASA processes) as well as local STB development would delay DTT in South Africa by another 3-5 years. This is in addition to the delays caused by the current review of the specifications called for by the Department of Communications.<\/p>\n
Cabinet had originally set a 1 November 2011 deadline for switching off analogue television transmissions. The International Telecommunications Union said that the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting should end on 17 June 2015.<\/p>\n
“A switch to ISDB will not only jeopardise the 2011 deadline,” said Willenberg. “It will also jeopardise the 2015 deadline laid down by the ITU.”<\/p>\n